THE  UNIVFRSITY  LIBRARY 
RSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  SAN  DI6GO 
LA  iOLLA,  CAUFORNIA 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  SAN  DIEGO 


3  1822  00308  3102 


Hebrew  Life  and  Thought 

Being  Interpretative  Studies  in  the 
Literature  of  Israel 


BY 

LOUISE  SEYMOUR  HOUGHTON 

Author  of  Telling  Bible  Stories,  Life  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  etc.,  etc. 


Chicago 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 

1907 


Copyrighted  1906  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


Published  June  1905 
Second  Impression  June  1901 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

REV.  GEORGE    B.  STEWART,  D.D. 

PRESIDENT    OF    AUBURN    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY,  WHOSE 

LUMINOUS    LIFE    HAS    MADE    LIGHT    TO    ME 

LIFE'S    DARKEST   MYSTERY,  THIS    BOOK 

IS    GRATEFULLY    DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

It  is  only  fair  to  both  readers  and  writer  of 
these  studies  to  say  that  they  were  written,  and 
had  been  given  in  the  form  of  lectures,  before 
any  of  the  now  large  and  daily  increasing  popu- 
lar literature  of  this  subject  had  come  into  being. 
In  the  nature  of  things,  every  repetition  of  these 
lectures  —  and  some  of  them  have  been  given 
more  than  thirty  times  —  implied  their  careful 
revision  in  whatever  new  light  had  been  shed 
upon  the  subject ;  and  now,  before  receiving  their 
final  form,  they  have  been  subjected  to  a  very 
thorough  revision.  But  as  they  were  first  writ- 
ten, and  as  they  now  stand,  they  are  far  more 
the  fruit  of  a  lifetime  of  Bible  study  than  of  any 
recent  reading.  That  study  began  at  an  age  ear- 
lier than  children  of  today  are  taught  to  read, 
and  has  continued  for  more  than  the  average 
lifetime.  Its  results  have  passed  into  the  fiber  of 
my  mind,  so  that  it  would  be  impossible  now,  if 
it  were  desirable,  to  give  authorities  for  many  of 
the  statements  here  made,  or  for  the  positions 
here  held ;  or  to  say  what,  if  anything,  here  is  my 
own  contribution  to  the  subject.  Probably  very 
little,    if   anything,    is   original    with   me.      The 


viii  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

purpose  of  these  papers  was  not,  and  is  not, 
to  give  forth  original  ideas,  but  to  bring  the 
more  or  less  cultured  but  unscientific  Bible  stu- 
dent into  a  hospitable  attitude  toward  the  new 
light  that  scholarship  has  shed  upon  the  sacred 
page.  It  has  long  been  my  conviction  that  if 
scientific  scholarship  had  more  generally  availed 
itself  of  the  method  of  culture,  it  would  not  have 
aroused  that  alarm  and  antagonism  with  which 
it  even  yet  has  to  reckon.  These  papers  are  my 
effort  to  allay  both,  so  far  as  their  influence 
may  reach,  by  putting  into  the  language  of  cul- 
ture some  of  those  conclusions  which,  when 
clothed  only  in  the  language  of  scholarship,  have 
aroused  hostility  which  appears  to  me  as  unneces- 
sary as  it  is  unfortunate.  My  contribution  to 
this  end,  therefore,  like  that  of  most  popular 
writers,  is  more  in  the  attitude  of  the  mind  which 
receives  and  gives  forth  the  thoughts  of  others, 
than  in  anything  new  or  original.  It  is,  indeed, 
quite  possible  that  the  few  ideas  which  appear 
to  me  to  be  mine,  and  which  constitute  the  illu- 
mination which  it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  shed 
upon  the  subject,  may  be  found  in  the  works  of 
other  writers,  though  I  am  not  aware  of  having 
found  them.  To  me  they  appear  to  be  either 
sudden  flashes  of  insight,  or  the  gradual  develop- 
ment in  my  own  mind  of  a  seed-thought  planted 
many  years  ago  by  parents  of  unusual  culture 


PREFACE  ix 

and  breadth  of  vision,  or  casually  dropped  there 
by  I  know  not  what  agency,  but  in  any  case 
equally  the  gift  of  God. 

My  warm  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  John  M.  P. 
Smith,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  for  care- 
fully reading  the  manuscript  of  this  book  and 
offering  many  valuable  criticisms,  which  had 
much  weight  in  the  very  thorough  revision  which 
the  work  received  before  going  to  the  printer; 
and  especially  to  Professor  Julius  A.  Bewer, 
Ph.D.,  of  Union  Theological  Seminary,  for  read- 
ing the  book  in  proof,  and  making  important 
suggestions,  by  which  I  have  been  very  glad  to 
profit. 

L.  S.  H. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH 

I 

It  was  Heine  who  called  the  Old  Testament 
"Jehovah's  diary."  That  sad,  bewildered, 
dauntless  spirit  was  not  able  to  find  in  it  the 
divine  teaching  which  some  of  us  discover;  he 
could  not  make  that  application  of  its  utterances 
to  his  own  needs  which  to  some  of  us  is  so  pre- 
cious; but  he  did  see  in  it  that  which  many  of 
us  fail  to  see,  that  which  is  its  most  important 
characteristic,  making  it  the  unique  book  of  all 
the  world.  He  saw  that  the  Old  Testament  was 
the  record  of  God's  dealing  with  the  entire  hu- 
man race.  Yet  it  is  not  a  history  nor  a  philoso- 
phy of  history.  Bit  by  bit,  part  by  part,  in 
divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners,  as  one 
sets  down  the  events  of  his  life  in  his  own  diary, 
now  with  ample  detail,  again  in  mere  suggestion 
which  only  he  who  has  the  clue  can  understand  — 
thus  has  God  given  us  in  this  volume  the  revela- 
tion of  a  gracious  purpose,  the  "  inner  history  of 
a  converse  of  God  with  man."  With  deeper  in- 
sight than  we  find  in  the  sacred  books  of  other 


2  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

peoples,  the  Old  Testament  pictures  the  world 
as  ruled  by  the  thought  of  God ;  with  a  certainty 
unknown  to  other  ancient  works,  sacred  or  pro- 
fane, it  unlocks  the  riddles  of  history  with  God 
as  the  master-key;  more  completely  than  any- 
thing that  has  ever  been  written,  in  any  time  or 
tongue,  it  shows  the  entire  story  of  the  human 
race,  past,  present,  and  future,  to  be  an  organic 
unity,  event  growing  out  of  event  by  a  natural 
development,  a  process  in  which  each  step  prophe- 
sies of  the  end  —  the  "  one  far-off  divine  event 
toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

As  the  records  of  other  ancient  peoples  are 
unearthed,  it  becomes  the  more  impressive  a  fact 
that  the  Old  Testament  gives  a  more  compre- 
hensive view  of  history  than  any  other  work  of 
ancient  time.  The  first  attempt  to  account  for 
the  various  races  actually  present  at  the  dawn  of 
historic  time,  of  which  we  have  any  record,  is 
that  found  in  some  early  chapters  of  Genesis; 
while  large  parts  of  Isaiah  and  some  other  proph- 
ets are  given  to  a  survey  of  the  whole  world  as 
then  known,  showing  one  nation  after  another 
as  it  stood  in  relation  to  the  divine  thought  for 
the  human  race,  then  being  worked  out  in  the 
history  of  the  people  Israel. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  think  of  the  Jews  as  a  sepa- 
rate people  in  a  geographical  sense,  as  if  they 
were  isolated  from  the  world  in  their  mountain- 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH       3 

and  desert-girt  land ;  they  were  in  constant  com- 
munication with  all  the  nations  then  existing.  It 
was  a  true  instinct  which  led  them  to  mark  in 
their  temple  inclosure  the  precise  center  of  the 
world.  That  circle  of  marble  pavement  surround- 
ing a  low  pillar  *  did  mark  it  then.  Palestine 
was  the  geographical  center  of  the  world  in  a 
perfectly  true  sense,  and  Israel  is  still  its  historic 
center.  The  old  rabbi  who  said,  "  Israel  is  among 
the  nations  as  the  heart  among  the  limbs,"  spoke 
true.  Israel  was  the  vital  organ  of  the  world. 
It  is  with  the  heart  that  one  sees  God,  as  our  Lord 
taught  us,2  and  this  vision  and  faculty  divine 
were  the  heritage  of  the  sons  of  Israel. 

Nothing  can  be  of  profounder  significance  than 
the  fact  that  from  the  earliest  times  the  Hebrew 
idea  of  God  was  a  moral  idea.  Not  that  Israel 
was  the  only  religious  nation  of  antiquity;  the 
most  important  interests  of  all  ancient  peoples 
were  religious  interests,  and  this  was  especially 
the  case  with  the  Semitic  peoples,  to  which  great 
family  the  Hebrews  belonged.  Nothing  is  more 
striking  than  the  revelation  of  this  fact  by  the 
lately  discovered  inscriptions  of  Assyria  and 
Babylonia.  Moab  and  Phoenicia.  All  their  wars 
were  religious  wars;  all  good  and  evil  came  to 

1  Christian  zeal  has  removed  it  to  the  Greek  chapel  in  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  where  at  the  great  feasts  it  is  kissed  by- 
thousands  of  devout  pilgrims. 

2  Matt.   5:  8. 


4  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

them  from  the  hand  of  their  god,  Chemosh  or 
Melkart  or  Bel;  in  these  things  they  differed 
not  at  all  from  Israel.  Did  David  long  to  build 
a  house  for  the  God  who  had  "  given  him  rest 
from  all  his  enemies  round  about  "  ?  3  Mesha, 
king  of  Moab,  the  contemporary  of  Ahab,  in- 
scribes on  his  monument,  discovered  hardly  forty 
years  ago,4  "  I  have  made  this  high  place  to 
Chemosh  ....  for  he  saved  me  from  all 
the  kings."  Did  Samuel  hew  Agag  in  pieces  be- 
fore Jehovah  ?  5  "I  slew  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city,"  says  Mesha ;  "  a  delightful  sight  to  Che- 
mosh." Did  Jehovah  say  to  Saul,  "  Go  and 
smite  Amelek  "  ?  6  The  Moabite  Stone  tells  how 
"  Chemosh  said  (to  Mesha),  '  Go  and  take  Nebo 
from  Israel,'  "  and  again,  "  Go  and  make  war  on 
Horonaim,"  an  Israelite  city.  It  was  not  in  be- 
ing religious  that  Israel  differed  from  other  na- 
tions, but  in  the  character  of  his  God.  Bel  and 
Chemosh  had  no  more  moral  character  than 
Apollo  and  Aphrodite,  and  Thor  and  Freya.  But 
Jehovah  was  good  in  the  moral  sense  of  the 
word ;  he  was  a  righteous  God.  What  made 
Israel  different  from  other  peoples  was  his  pro- 
found belief  that  eternal  righteousness  ruled  the 
world. 

It  was  this,  as  Matthew  Arnold  says,  that  made 

8  2    Sam.    7:2.  Bi    Sam.    15:33. 

4  In   1868.  8  1    Sam.    15:3. 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  -THE  MOST  HIGH       5 

Abraham  differ  from  the  highly  religious  Chal- 
deans, from  among  whom  he  was  called  out :  he 
dared  to  demand  justice  of  his  God.  "  Shall  not 
the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?  "  7  If,  as 
Professor  Toy  says,  "  the  religious  system  of  a 
people  expresses  its  attempt  to  construe  the  world 
in  accordance  with  its  highest  instincts,"  what 
must  it  have  been  to  the  world  to  have  had, 
through  long  ages,  in  the  very  center  of  its  active 
life,  a  people  who  construed  the  world  as  related 
in  all  its  functions  to  a  God  of  ever  deeper  and 
more  comprehensive  moral  character ! 8  The 
thought  lends  interest  to  every  clue  we  have  to 
Israel's  relations  with  the  nations.  Great  por- 
tions of  the  Bible,  which  had  seemed  obscure  and 
unimportant,  spring  up  at  once  into  high  relief, 
and  take  on  living  interest.  The  burden  of  Tyre,9 
the  burden  of  Nineveh,10  the  burden  of  the  desert 
of  the  sea,11  begin  to  mean  something  when  we 
find  that  these  peoples  and  places  have  their  part, 
too,  in  the  development  of  God's  great  thought 
for  the  salvation  of  man. 

The  volume  which,  by  a  central  idea  like  this, 

7  Gen.    18:  25. 

8  "  That  Jehovah's  relation  to  Israel  is  not  natural  but  ethical 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  prophets,  and  is  emphasized,  in  dependence 
on  their  teaching,  in  the  book  of  Deuteronomy.  But  .  .  .  the 
idea  has  its  foundation  in  pre-prophetic  times;  and  indeed  the 
prophets,  though  they  give  it  fresh  and  powerful  application,  plainly 
do  not  regard  the  conception  as  an  innovation." —  XV.  Robertson 
Smith,  Religion   of  the  Semites,   p.   319,   note. 

•Isa.    23:1.  wNah.    1:1.  «  Isa.   21:1. 


6  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

brings  into  unity  the  story  of  the  whole  world's 
life  surely  demands  a  larger  study  than  the  purely 
devotional  reading  which  is  all  that  most  of  those 
who  read  it  at  all  give  to  it.  For  it  is  manifestly 
more  than  a  revelation  of  God  to  the  individual 
soul,  more  than  a  system  of  belief,  more  than  a 
law  of  life.  It  gives  the  key  to  human  history, 
showing  its  secret  to  be  the  converse  of  God  with 
man.  Without  question,  the  book  which  shows 
this  truth  is  a  far  larger  book  than  most  people 
who  read  it  have  realized.  And  yet  to  most  of 
those  who  read  the  Bible  daily  it  is  gradually 
becoming  a  smaller  and  smaller  book.  Not  less 
precious;  far  otherwise,  no  doubt.  The  light  of 
day  was  not  less  precious  to  the  man  of  whom 
we  read  in  the  tragic  story  of  the  "  Iron  Shroud," 
who  day  after  day  saw  the  walls  of  his  prison 
closing  in  upon  him,  and  shutting  out  one  by 
one  the  windows* that  opened  between  him  and 
the  sun.  At  first  he  did  not  notice  the  narrow- 
ing area  of  his  chamber ;  and  perhaps  my  readers 
are  now  reflecting  for  the  first  time  that,  as  the 
years  go  on,  they  read  the  same  portions  of  the 
Bible  more  frequently,  going  over  and  over  again 
their  favorite  psalms  and  chapters,  making  fewer 
excursions  into  the  unfamiliar  fields  of  history 
and  prophecy  and  wisdom  and  law. 

They  are  hardly  better  off  who  have  learned 
to  see  spiritual  lessons  applicable  to  themselves  in 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH       7 

all  parts  of  the  Bible  —  in  every  record  of  God's 
dealings  with  men  in  history,  and  in  every  psalm, 
prophecy,  and  proverb.  Reading  the  Bible  in 
this  subjective  way,  with  self  as  the  center  of 
importance,  they  have  so  far  gained  as  to  have 
been  able  to  find  that  the  driest  and  least  profit- 
able passages  may  have  their  gleams  of  interest; 
as  when  the  story  of  Jabez  flashes  out  like  a  pre- 
cious jewel  from  the  midst  of  a  dull  genealogical 
record.12  It  is  easy  to  make  a  personal  application 
of  this  exquisite  little  story,  with  its  half-revela- 
tion of  pathos  and  patience ;  and  where  the  reader 
finds  no  such  helps  over  hard  places,  he  manages 
to  make  his  reading  "  profitable  "  by  means  of 
the  double  sense,  the  figurative  or  typical  appli- 
cation of  it  to  his  own  inner  history. 

But  granting  that  this  is  a  legitimate  use  of 
the  Word  of  God,  what  a  belittling  of  a  volume 
which  brings  to  light  the  most  sublime  of  all 
truths,  thus  to  whittle  it  down  to  fit  individual 
needs !  A  somewhat  over-brilliant  essayist  of 
recent  years  has  said  that,  though  we  have  ac- 
cepted the  Copernican  system  of  astronomy,  yet 
in  our  philosophy  of  life  we  are  still  Ptolemaic  — 
ourselves  the  center  of  our  universe.  This  is  cer- 
tainly the  case  with  regard  to  the  Bible  study  of 
most  people;  and  they  miss  more  than  they  are 
aware  by  thus  making  their  own  personality  the 

12  i   Chron.  4:  9,   10. 


8  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

center  of  the  Bible,  and  listening  merely  for  the 
voice  of  God  to  their  own  souls.  We  cannot 
learn  to  know  God  by  discovering  what  he  is  to 
ourselves  alone;  it  is  not  until  we  learn  some- 
thing of  what  he  is  to  the  world  that  we  begin 
to  know  him.  To  assume  a  double  significance 
for  every  passage  of  which  the  obvious  meaning 
has  no  application  to  oneself,  seeking  therein 
for  the  cipher  that  tells  one's  own  inner  history,  is 
like  the  way  certain  people  study  Shakespeare, 
finding  in  it  the  cipher  in  which  Bacon  wrote  his 
own  story;  only  the  loss  of  all  that  is  large  and 
central  and  universal  is  incomparably  greater. 

It  is  true  that  we  have  the  authority  of  the 
church  fathers  for  the  allegorical  interpretation. 
They  laid  down  the  principle  that  everything  in 
Scripture  which,  taken  in  its  natural  sense,  ap- 
pears unedifying,  must  be  made  edifying  by 
some  method  of  typical  or  figurative  application; 
and  Origen  carried  this  principle  so  far  as  to 
teach  that  the  literal  sense  of  Scripture  is  often 
designedly  impossible,  absurd,  or  immoral;  lest, 
cleaving  to  the  letter  alone,  men  should  remain 
at  a  distance  from  the  dogmata,  and  learn  nothing 
worthy  of  God.  But  the  Fathers  lived  in  a  day 
when  history  had  not  become  a  science,  when  the 
Hebrew  language  had  not  been  revived  from 
the  dead  by  comparative  philology,  and  when' the 
comparative  study  of  religions  had  not  yet  begun 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH       9 

to  illumine  the  pages  of  the  Bible.  No  Bible 
reader  of  today  would  accept  Origen's  view  in 
this  particular ;  but  all  do  not  perceive  with  equal 
clearness  that,  unless  they  accept  some  such  prin- 
ciple as  he  lays  down,  they  have  only  two  alter- 
natives :  either  to  find  the  greater  half  of  the 
Bible  meaningless,  or  else  to  search  for  its  mean- 
ing by  the  same  methods  by  which  men  search 
for  the  meaning  of  other  written  things. 

When  we  come  to  think  carefully  on  the  sub- 
ject of  biblical  interpretation,  we  see  that  it  is  as 
dishonoring  to  God  to  put  a  meaning  into  his 
inspired  Word  which  is  not  naturally  there,  as  it 
is  impertinent  to  do  what  some  eminent  theolo- 
gians, and  a  great  many  less  eminent  people,  are 
continually  doing  —  attempt  to  "  reconcile  " 
statements  that  appear  to  be  contradictory.  It  is 
not  faith,  but  presumption,  which  impels  us  to 
explain  away  anything  in  the  Bible,  or  try  to  fit 
it  to  a  standard  not  its  own ;  even  though  that 
standard  be  what  we  deem  truth.  For  we  know 
only  in  part ;  and  yet  even  we  know  that  truth  is 
something  other  than  verbal  accuracy.  What  we 
need  is  the  open  mind,  willing  at  whatever  cost 
to  know  the  truth.  Our  first  question  must  in- 
deed be  simply:  What  does  the  Old  Testament 
say?  And  to  this  question  the  answer  must  be 
found  by  the  method  by  which  we  can  ascertain 
what  any  book  says.     When  we  have  seen  what 


IO  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

it  says,  we  are  ready  to  ask :  What  does  it 
mean?  We  usually  go  to  work  the  other  way. 
We  think  we  know  pretty  well  what  it  must 
mean,  and  so  we  devote  our  energies  to  making 
what  it  says  correspond  with  that. 

II 

The  explanation  of  this  mistake,  which  still 
remains  almost  universal,  notwithstanding  many 
recent  efforts  to  correct  it,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  people  generally  do  not  concern  them- 
selves with  the  literary  character  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Not  only  at  divers  times  but  in  divers 
manners,  divers  literary  forms  —  narrative,  prov- 
erb, prophecy,  psalm,  parable,  epistle  —  has  God 
spoken  to  the  world.  There  is  always  a  reason 
for  the  form  of  every  work  of  literature  worthy 
of  the  name.  Thought  creates  its  own  form; 
the  thought  of  God  for  man,  that  revelation  of 
his  gracious  purpose,  that  inner  history  of  his 
converse  with  mankind,  which  we  have  in  the 
Old  Testament,  must,  in  the  very  nature  of 
thought,  have  revealed  its  various  phases  in  vari- 
ous forms.  To  discern  the  force  and  meaning 
of  these  forms,  their  relation  to  the  idea,  is  a  duty 
pressing  upon  all  devout  Bible  readers. 

A  large  portion  of  the  perplexities  awakened 
by  reading  the  Old  Testament,  especially  the  sup- 
posed need  of  "  reconciling  "  conflicting  historic 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH     II 

statements,  vanish  when  one  discovers  the  liter- 
ary class  to  which  these  statements  belong,  and 
traces  the  relation  of  the  form  to  the  idea  which 
made  it  so.  Nothing  is  more  evident  to  any  stu- 
dent of  the  books  of  the  Bible  which  are  called 
historical  than  that  fact  as  fact  is  everywhere  of 
minor  importance  to  the  writers.  Let  anyone 
read  straight  through  at  a  sitting  the  book  of 
Judges,  for  example.  It  is  full  of  stirring  inci- 
dents, of  marvelous  deeds ;  but  it  is  not  these  that 
will  stick  in  the  memory  as  one  closes  the  book, 
but  rather  the  ever-recurring  words,  resounding 
in  his  ears  like  the  ceaseless  roll  of  the  waves 
upon  the  seashore:  "The  children  of  Israel  did 
evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  ....  and  the 
Lord  delivered  them  into  the  hands  of  their  ene- 
mies ....  then  they  cried  unto  the  Lord 
.  and  he  raised  them  up  a  Saviour."  13 
That  is,  the  purpose  of  this  book  appears  to  be 
what  theologians  call  a  pragmatic  purpose  —  or 
what,  from  the  present  point  of  view,  may  be 
called  an  ideal  purpose :  to  teach,  not  history,  but 
the  nature  of  the  dealings  of  God  with  Israel ; 
to  bring  to  light,  that  is,  by  means  of  a  fragmen- 
tary record  of  events,  such  as  one  puts  down  in  a 
diary,  the  method  of  God's  inner  converse  with 
man. 

If  the  books  which   we  call   historic  are  not 

13  Judg.  2:  ii,   14,  16;  3:  7,  9;  4:  2,  3,  4  ff.,  etc. 


12  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

that  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  what  then 
are  they?  The  Jews  call  them. prophecy.  They 
divide  the  Old  Testament  into  the  Law,  the 
Prophets,  and  the  Sacred  Writings,  and  all  that 
lies  between  the  Pentateuch  and  Esther  they  in- 
clude in  prophecy.  Yet  nothing  is  more  evident 
than  the  essential  difference  between  the  books 
generally  classed  as  history  and  those  which  are 
known  as  prophecy.  Precisely  what  is  the  differ- 
ence between  them  is  a  literary  question  of  in- 
tense interest,  to  which  I  can  here  give  only  a 
clue  by  pointing  out  that,  however  far-reaching 
might  be  the  meaning  of  prophecy,  its  first  pur- 
pose must  have  been,  in  the  nature  of  things,  to 
interpret  passing  events  to  the  men  who  were  ex- 
periencing them,  so  that  they  might  see  God  in 
them,  and  discern  in  some  degree  his  gracious 
purpose.  With  a  self-consciousness  which  would 
be  almost  sublime,  were  it  not  so  pitifully  blind- 
ing, Christian  readers  of  the  Old  Testament  have 
long  assumed  that  the  prophecies  were  written 
for  themselves,  to  furnish  them  a  proof  of  the 
truth  of  revelation  by  the  fact  that  the  prophecies 
have  been  fulfilled.  But  it  is  evident  that  this 
could  hardly  have  been  the  view  of  those  to  whom 
the  prophecies  were  given.  They,  the  Hebrew 
contemporaries  of  the  prophets,  must  have  sup- 
posed that  these  prophetic  utterances  concerned 
themselves,  and  were  intended  as  a  revelation  to 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH      13 

them  of  God's  gracious  purpose.  The  historic 
books  have  in  general  the  same  purpose,  but  they 
were  written,  not  only  or  not  always  for  the  actors 
in  the  events,  but  also  for  a  later  generation,  and 
with  a  view  to  historic  record.  Yet  is  their  pur- 
pose none  the  less  prophetic :  to  reveal  God  and 
show  him  active  in  history ;  although  from  their 
literary  character  prophetic  significance  is  found 
not  so  much  in  the  interpretation  of  events  as  in 
their  general  scope  and  trend.14 

Ill 

If,  then,  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  not  prophecy,  and  yet,  strictly  speaking, 
are  not  history  in  the  ordinary  acceptance  of  the 
word,  what  are  they? 

Thoughtful  reading  makes  one  fact  increasing- 
ly evident,  namely,  that  imagination  had  a  part 
in  the  writing  of  these  books.  The  more  we 
study  them,  the  more  we  feel  that  poetry  is  latent 
all  through  them.  This  is  not  to  say  that  there 
is  untruth  in  them.  The  proverbial  antithesis  be- 
tween truth  and  poetry  is  a  mischievous  mistake. 
Imagination,  poetry,  is  a  necessary  element  of 
truth.     The  antithesis  does  not  lie  between  truth 

14  These  remarks  do  not  apply  to  the  books  of  Chronicles,  Ezra, 
and  Nehemiah.  They  are  practically  one  work,  written,  not  from 
the  prophetic,  but  from  the  priestly  standpoint,  and  cover  the 
history  of  Judah  from  Adam  (in  whom,  from  this  point  of  view, 
it  potentially   began)    to  the  latest  event  recorded,  432  b.    c. 


14  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

and  poetry,  but  it  often  does  lie  between  truth 
and  scientific  statement,  which  fails  of  accuracy 
precisely  from  lack  of  poetry.  As  Matthew  Ar- 
nold pointed  out,  it  is  more  accurate  to  describe 
God  as  "  the  High  and  Holy  One  that  inhabiteth 
eternity  "  than  to  say  that  he  is  "  the  moral  and 
intelligent  governor  of  the  universe,"  though  the 
latter  is  a  scientific  statement  of  fact,  and  the 
former  is  poetry.  More  than  half  the  supposed 
oppositions  between  the  Bible  and  science  arise 
from  the  lack  of  poetic  instinct  in  scientist  and 
theologian  alike.  If  the  theologians  of  the  Latin 
church  had  been  aware  of  the  fact  that  certain 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament  were  poetry,  they 
would  probably  not  have  condemned  Galileo  for 
teaching  that  the  world  moves,  in  blasphemous 
contradiction,  as  they  supposed,  to  the  biblical 
statement  that  the  Lord  has  set  the  world  upon 
pillars,15  and  again  that  he  has  so  established  it 
that  it  cannot  be  moved.16 

When  we  look  at  the  historical  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  from  the  true  —  that  is,  the  poetic 
—  standpoint,  we  perceive  in  a  moment  that  they 
are  not  history  in  our  modern  understanding  of 
the  word  "  history,"  but  answer  more  nearly  to 
our  idea  of  epic  —  the  great  world-epic  of  the 
dealings  of  God  with  men.  Let  me  define  an  epic 
as  an  imaginative  and  poetic  narrative  of  mem- 

15  i    Sam.  2:  8.  "Ps.   96:  10. 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH     1 5 

orable  things,  always  with  appeal  to  the  religious 
instinct,  and  it  becomes  clear  that  this  precisely 
describes  the  historical  narratives  of  the  Bible. 
We  shall  learn  more  later  about  this  epic  method ; 
but  here  we  may  properly  pause  to  observe  that, 
just  as  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  give  us  that 
sense  of  familiarity  with  Greek  civilization  which 
makes  the  history  of  Greece  potent  as  the  inter- 
preter of  human  institutions  and  human  thought, 
so  the  Bible  epic  is  of  importance  in  giving  a 
large  setting,  a  human  environment,  to  spiritual 
truth.  We  should  take  into  consideration  that 
our  only  knowledge  of  the  conditions  under  which 
the  divine  revelation  first  came  is  from  these  so- 
called  historic  books.  When  we  come  to  New 
Testament  times,  we  have  an  immense  back- 
ground and  environment  of  secular  history  and 
literature,  and  therefore  the  revelation  of  New 
Testament  truth  is  given  in  most  condensed  and 
concrete  form.  It  was  not  so  in  Old  Testament 
times;  and  it  is  a  very  suggestive  fact  that  the 
sacred  history  becomes  less  full,  and  finally  ceases 
altogether  at  about  the  time  when  profane  history 
and  literature  came  in  to  supply  its  place  as  a 
background — the  time  of  Cyrus  and  the  begin- 
ning of  Greek  supremacy. 


l6  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

IV 

Beginning,  then,  to  study  the  Bible  as  litera- 
ture, the  first  question  must  be  as  to  the  way  in 
which  it  was  written — the  human  element.  We 
are  not  studying  the  question  of  inspiration;  let 
me  here  assure  my  readers  that  no  one  can  study 
the  literature  of  the  Bible  without  coming  to  the 
profound  conviction  that  it  is  inspired.  But  we 
must  remember  that  inspiration  is  not  necessarily 
given  by  means  of  a  book.  God  can  speak  to  the 
human  heart  by  any  means.  He  spoke  to  men 
long  before  ever  a  book  was  made,  and  we  have 
no  means  of  knowing  whether  he  spoke  in  words 
or  not;  but  we  know  that  he  speaks  to  us,  and 
that  he  does  not  speak  in  words.  We  may,  if  we 
like,  say  that  God  could  have  made  a  panorama 
of  creation  pass  before  Moses;  though  we  have 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  did  so.  But,  how- 
ever Moses  or  anyone  else  received  a  divine  reve- 
lation, he  could  pass  the  knowledge  on  only  by 
means  of  words,  and  could  make  it  permanently 
useful  only  by  committing  it  to  writing.  Now, 
not  to  speak  of  the  fact  that  language  is  contin- 
ually growing  and  developing  —  is  "  fluid,"  as 
Matthew  Arnold  says  —  fitting  itself  into  any 
mold,  we  must  remember  also  that  the  art  of  lit- 
erary composition,  like  the  arts  of  painting  and 
sculpture,  has  its  mechanical  side,  and  that  its 
methods   have   greatly   improved   since  the  Old 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH     17 

Testament  was  written.  Punctuation,  for  exam- 
ple, is  a  device  far  more  modern  than  the  latest 
Old  Testament  writer;  so  is  the  distinction  be- 
tween capitals  and  small  letters,  and  even  the  de- 
vice of  spacing  between  words.  Every  great 
library  contains  old  manuscripts  in  which  the  let- 
ters are  solid,  the  words  following  close  upon 
one  another;  and  if  our  English  Bible  were  thus 
printed,  familiar  as  it  is  to  most  of  us,  we  should 
probably  find  some  difficulty  in  getting  at  its 
meaning.  Practice  enables  scholars  to  read  the 
old  manuscripts,  notwithstanding  their  lack  of 
modern  facilities,  and  there  are  very  few  errors 
in  translation  due  to  wrong  divisions  between 
words  —  though  there  are  some  due  to  wrong 
divisions  between  sentences. 

The  absence  of  quotation  marks  is  a  more  seri- 
ous difficulty,  and  it  is  certain  that  much  of  the 
obscurity  of  the  prophets  and  psalms  is  due  to  the 
failure  to  perceive  that  certain  passages  are 
quoted,  as  uttered  by  God  or  by  some  person  not 
the  writer.  In  some  cases  this  is  evident,  as  in 
the  magnificent  psalm  sung  at  the  triumphal  en- 
try of  the  ark  into  the  newly  conquered  .city  of 
Jerusalem.17  Here  the  alternation  of  voices  is 
plain  —  the  priest  approaching  with  the  ark,  cry- 
ing: 

17  Ps.  24:  7,   10. 


18  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates ! 

Be  lift  up,  ye  doors  of  old, 

That  the  King  of  Glory  may  come  in! 

and  the  warden  answering  from  within: 

Who   is   He,   the   King  of   Glory? 

But  there  are  other  places  where  the  proper  set- 
ting of  quotation  marks  throws  a  flood  of  light 
upon  the  passage.  This  is  very  strikingly  the 
case  in  the  Song  of  Solomon,  and  is  of  especial 
importance  in  prophetic  passages.  One  attempt- 
ing to  read  a  copy  of  Shakespeare  which  made 
no  division  between  the  speeches,  gave  no  name 
of  speaker,  no  list  even  of  the  persons  taking 
part,  would  find  himself  in  much  the  same  pre- 
dicament as  when  reading  the  dramatic  passages 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  they  are  generally 
printed. 

The  translators  perceived  this  difficulty  in  the 
case  of  the  recapitulation  of  the  work  of  the 
Levites,  in  I  Chron.  23 :  5,  where  "  said  David  " 
is  inserted  by  them;  and  still  more  interestingly 
in  Ps.  27 : 8,  where,  in  the  midst  of  an  importu- 
nate prayer  to  Jehovah,  occur  the  words  "  Seek 
ye  my*  face,"  evidently  spoken  by  God.  The 
translators  have  very  properly  prefaced  them 
with  the  words  (not  in  the  Hebrew)  "When 
thou  saidst."    But  there  are  few  such  instances,18 

18  See  Lam.  2:  15;  Job  9:  19  (R-  V.). 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH      19 

and  opportunities  for  some  such  treatment  occur 
on  nearly  every  page. 

Many  of  the  perplexities  of  the  Old  Testament 
arise  from  the  want  of  such  mechanical  devices 
as  the  parenthesis,  the  footnote,  and  the  appendix, 
none  of  which  was  known  when  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  written.  In  the  story  of  the  Shunam- 
ite,19  Elisha  and  Gehazi  appear  to  carry  on  in  the 
womaifs  presence  a  conversation  which  would 
more  courteously  have  been  carried  on  in  her  ab- 
sence, and  in  fact  was  so,  although  the  preceding 
verse  says  the  woman  stood  before  Elisha.  In 
the  verse  that  follows  the  conversation,  indeed, 
Gehazi  is  told  to  call  her,  which  is  absurd  if  she 
was  already  there.  If  the  writer  had  been  famil- 
iar with  the  use  of  the  parenthesis,  this  awkward- 
ness, which  is  purely  in  the  form  of  the  narrative, 
would  have  been  avoided ;  there  is  no  real  con- 
tradiction, but  an  interesting  bit  of  evidence  of 
the  difficulty  with  which  so  simple  a  literary  de- 
vice as  the  parenthesis  was  wrought  out.  In  2 
Kings  5  :  2  the  explanation  how  the  wife  of  Naa- 
man,  the  Syrian,  came  to  have  a  Hebrew  maid- 
servant would  have  been  put  in  a  footnote,  if 
the  methods  of  writing  in  that  day  had  admitted 
of  such  a  device. 

This  question  of  structure  is  particularly  im- 
portant in  view  of  what  are  called  discrepancies. 

18  2  Kings  4:  1^—15. 


20  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

For  example,  in  the  story  of  Jehu  we  have  some 
statements  which  seem  almost  fatally  contradic- 
tory until  we  understand  the  difficulty  of  literary 
mechanism  in  those  times.  In  2  Kings  10:30 
Jehu  is  commended,  although  in  the  verses  which 
precede  and  follow  (29,  31)  he  is  severely  con- 
demned: (Vs.  29)  "  Howbeit  from  the  sins  of 
Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to 
sin.  Jehu  departed  not  from  after  them  •  to  wit 
the  golden  calves  that  were  in  Bethel  and  that 
were  in  Dan.  (Vs.  30)  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Jehu,  Because  thou  hast  done  well  in  executing 
that  which  is  right  in  mine  eyes  and  hast  done 
unto  the  house  of  Ahab  according  to  all  that  was 
in  their  heart,  the  children  of  the  fourth  genera- 
tion shall  sit  on  the  throne  of  Israel.  (Vs.  31) 
But  Jehu  took  no  heed  to  walk  in  the  law  of 
Jehovah  God  of  Israel  with  all  his  heart,  for  he 
departed  not  from  the  sins  of  Jeroboam,  king  of 
Israel,  which  made  Israel  to  sin." 

The  three  verses  read  like  a  continuous  state- 
ment, but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  only  one  belongs 
to  the  narrative ;  the  others  are  observations  add- 
ed by  the  historian,  long  after  Jehu's  death,  re- 
viewing his  career  as  a  whole.  It  was  simply 
impossible,  with  the  existing  facilities  for  book- 
making,  for  him  to  put  his  own  reflections  in  an 
appendix  at  the  end  of  the  book,  as  a  modern 
historian  would  do. 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH     21 

Although  the  mechanical  devices  with  which 
we  are  so  familiar  were  unknown  to  the  Hebrew 
writers,  they  also  had  their  literary  devices,  which 
are  quite  as  important  as  a  basis  for  interpreta- 
tion. Chief  among-  them  perhaps  is  parallelism, 
which  is  a  cardinal  factor  in  poetic  construction, 
though  it  is  not  confined  to  poetry.  It  was  in 
the  genius  of  Hebrew  utterance  to  fall  into  paral- 
lelism in  moments  of  deep  feeling,  when  all  lan- 
guage takes  on  a  semi-poetic  form.  Our  Savior 
often  spoke  in  parallels :  "  I  am  come  that  they 
might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly."  20  "  They  [the  sheep]  shall  never 
perish,  neither  shall  any  pluck  them  out  of  my 
hand."21  In  parallelism  the  second  line  usually 
does  not  state  a  new  proposition,  but  amplifies 
or  extends  or  completes  that  of  the  first.  Much 
faulty  exegesis  is  due  to  an  oversight  of  this 
principle;  for  example,  a  great  deal  of  scorn  has 
been  poured  forth  by  scoffers,  and  much  apology 
used  to  be  wasted  by  expositors,  on  the  statement 
that  Christ  entered  Jerusalem  riding  on  an  ass 
and  a  colt.22  Profane  levity  amused  itself  with 
imaginary  pictures  of  our  Lord  bestriding  two 
animals  at  once,  and  devout  literature  did  its  best 
to  blur  over  the  picture.  Nothing  of  the  kind  is 
needed  to  those  who  understand  the  genius  of 
Hebrew  literature  (as  we  all  may  if  we  read  our 

20  John   10:  10.  M  John    10:28. 


22  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

English  Bible  intelligently)  ;  for  those  who  do, 
know  that  the  second  line  states  more  definitely 
what  was  stated  in  the  first:  He  rode  on  an  ass; 
yes,  it  was  a  colt,  an  ass's  foal ;  a  fact  important 
from  the  Hebrew  point  of  view  of  the  consecra- 
tion of  unused  things  to  divine  purposes. 

From  parallelism  we  might  go  on  to  proverb, 
and  find  that  the  Hebrew  fondness  for  this  form 
of  teaching  often  gives  a  new  canon  of  interpre- 
tation;  and  so  through  all  the  literary  forms  — 
parable,  love  song,  sonnet,  drama,  philosophy. 
But  there  is  room  here  only  to  consider  the  enor- 
mous influence  upon  popular  culture  and  refine- 
ment which  this  method  of  Bible  study  would 
exert.  The  Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible  is 
the  finest  work  of  literature  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  perhaps  in  any  language.  It  includes 
nearly  every  known  literary  form;  it  abounds  in 
passion  and  pathos,  in  humor,  sarcasm,  playful- 
ness, proverb,  by-word ;  it  pictures  early  manners 
and  customs  with  a  fidelity  which  admits  of  no 
question ;  its  thoughts  are  incomparably  noble,  its 
diction  of  a  grand  simplicity  and  naturalness,  its 
ruling  idea  an  idea  almost  inconceivably  great.  A 
nation  that  has  the  Bible  in  every  hotel  bedroom, 
in  the  saloon  of  every  steamer,  ought  to  be  the 
most  cultivated  nation  in  the  world. 

All   men   of  great   literary  achievement   have 

--  Matt.   21 :  5. 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH     23 

been  students  of  the  Bible.  The  free-thinking 
Shelley's  poetry  and  prose  are  full  of  it.  One 
short  paragraph  in  his  Defence  of  Poetry  has  no 
less  than  seven  biblical  allusions.  Shakespeare 
and  Raleigh,  Burke  and  Southey,  Newman  and 
Saintsbury,  Longfellow  and  Browning,  Thomas 
Hardy  and  Stevenson,  are  fairly  saturated  with 
the  language,  the  thoughts,  the  tropes  and  figures 
of  the  Bible.  Ruskin  attributes  all  the  warmth 
and  color  of  his  style  to  his  having  been  obliged 
in  his  boyhood  to  read  aloud  with  his  mother 
once  every  year  the  entire  Bible,  and  to  commit 
to  memory  many  of  its  noblest  chapters.  The 
statesman  Bright  made  striking  use  of  the  death 
of  the  first-born  of  Egypt  in  a  memorable  speech 
in  the  House  of  Commons  during  the  Crimean 
War.  Southey  makes  fine  use  of  Elijah's  chariot 
of  fire  in  his  passage  on  the  death  of  Nelson. 
And  who  can  read  without  a  thrill  the  use  by 
Dickens,  at  the  death  of  Sydney  Carton,  of  the 
passage,  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  saith 
the  Lord"? 

The  Bible  has  molded  the  style  of  all  our  great- 
est writers,  and  it  is  even  yet  the  strongest  coun- 
teracting force  against  the  degenerating  influence 
upon  English  style  of  the  rapid  writing  and 
careless  reading  of  the  present  day.  One  can 
hardly  take  up  a  book  or  serious  magazine 
article  without  finding  allusions  to  the  Bible  on 


24  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

every  page.  An  interesting  article  on  the  po- 
litical situation  in  England,  written  not  by  a 
literary  man,  but  by  a  professional  statesman, 
contained  more  than  a  dozen  biblical  allusions, 
and  the  article  owed  its  fine  literary  character 
almost  entirely  to  the  writer's  familiarity  with 
the  Old  Testament.  The  same  discovery  may  be 
made  in  almost  any  work  of  literature,  if  the 
reader  is  sufficiently  familiar  with  the  Bible  to 
detect  the  allusions  to  it.  But  precisely  here  is 
the  difficulty.  Few  young  people  of  today  have 
a  verbal  acquaintance  with  the  Old  Testament, 
and  it  will  soon  become  necessary  to  edit  all  our 
greatest  writers,  even  such  novelists  as  Hardy 
and  Stevenson,  with  explanations  of  the  biblical 
allusions. 

We  consider  it  a  point  of  education  to  make 
our  children  familiar  with  the  mythology  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  of  the  Norse  folk  and  the  old 
Germans,  chiefly  that  they  may  understand  what 
they  read.  We  deem  that  man  uncultured  who 
does  not  recognize  quotations  from  the  classics, 
or  is  not  able  to  make  them  at  need.  Here  is  the 
greatest  classic  of  all  time.  Let  us  study  it  as 
wre  would  study  any  classic,  that  wre  may  be  able 
to  wring  from  it  its  fullest  meaning.  Goethe 
says: 

I  am  convinced  that  the  Bible  becomes  ever  more 
beautiful  the  more  one  understands  it;   that  is,  the  more 


THE  DAY-BOOK  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH    25 

one  gets  insight  to  see  that  every  word  which  we  take  gen- 
erally and  make  special  application  of  to  our  own  wants 
has  had,  in  connection  with  certain  circumstances,  with  cer- 
tain relations  of  time  and  place,  a  peculiar  direct  individual 
reference  of  its  own. 

And  if,  indeed,  this  classic  is,  as  most  of  us 
believe,  inspired  by  God  in  a  sense  in  which  no 
other  book  is  inspired,  if  in  it  we  find  the  history 
of  his  converse  with  the  sons  of  men  in  the  form 
in  which  he  has  chosen  to  give  it  to  us,  then  no 
study  is  amiss  which  gives  the  clue  to  its  half- 
hints,  which  brings  light  to  its  obscurities,  and 
shows  its  true  character,  as  the  diary  of  the  con- 
verse of  heaven  with  earth,  the  day-book  of  the 
Eternal  God. 


CHAPTER  II 

FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

I 

In  that  impressive  book,  A  Study  of  Death? 
the  author  strikingly  points  out  the  childlike 
character  of  the  Hebrew  people.  The  most  prom- 
inent characteristics  of  the  "  children  of  Israel  " 
were  those  of  childhood.  They  had  the  intense 
feeling,  the  spontaneity  and  absence  of  self-con- 
sciousness, which  are  so  charming  in  childhood; 
like  children,  they  were  acutely  susceptible  to  the 
delights  of  the  senses;  they  loved  good  food,  per- 
fumes, the  dance,  and  music;  they  delighted  in 
jewels  and  gorgeous  apparel ;  the  splendor  of  a 
goodly  Babylonish  garment  lured  Achan  to  ruin,2 
and  with  savory  meat  blind  Isaac  was  beguiled.3 
Jacob  thought  it  a  high  blessing  for  Judah  that 

He  hath  washed  in  wine  his  raiment, 
And  in  the  blood  of  the  grape  his  vesture. 
Heavy  in  the  eyes  from  wine 
And  white  of  teeth  from  milk  ;4 

1  Henry    Mills    Alden,    A    Study    of    Death    (Harpers,     1895), 
pp.   214—42   passim. 

2  Josh.   7:21.  «Gen.   49:11,   12. 
"Gen.   27:  1-3,  6-14,    18-23. 

26 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       27 
and  for  Asher  that 

His  bread  is  fat 

And  he  yieldeth  the  dainties  of  a  king.5 

Yet  with  all  this  joy  of  sensation,  sensuality 
was  no  more  a  Hebrew  vice  than  it  is  a  vice  of 
childhood.  As  in  all  childlike  natures,  delight  in 
the  sensible  world  was  closely  associated  with 
high  spiritual  exaltation,  and  it  was  because  this 
childhood  was  perennial,  lasting  on  through  gen- 
eration after  generation,  that  the  spiritual  capa- 
city of  this  people  became  so  deep.  "  Heaven  lies 
about  us  in  our  infancy;"  to  the  Hebrew  it  was 
ever  close  at  hand.  It  was  no  strange  thing  to 
him  that  messengers  of  God  came  and  went  fa- 
miliarly between  earth  and  that  near  sky  in  which 
God  dwelt,  like  the  shepherd  who  guards  his 
sheep,6  spreading  out  the  heaven  as  a  tent  above 
him.7  The  Hebrew  had  no  more  conception  of 
the  orderly  development  of  events  than  the  child 
has,  and  therefore  he  received  the  miraculous  in- 
terventions of  God  in  his  daily  life  as  a  child 
takes  its  father's  gifts,  not  as  evidence  of  his  ex- 
istence and  credibility,  but  as  witness  to  his  ten- 
der preoccupation  in  the  well-being  of  his  child. 
The  entire  history  of  Israel,  as  Mr.  Alden  says,8 
foreshadowed  the  principle  which  the  life  of  Jesus 
illustrated,  and  which  he  laid  down  as  the  cardi- 

6  Gen.  49:20.  7  Ps.    104:2. 

"Judg.    6:11-16;    13:2-9.  "Op.cit.,  p.   237. 


28  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

nal  principle  of  his  kingdom :  that  he  who  does 
not  become  as  a  little  child  cannot  enter  therein.9 

Perhaps  it  was  because  of  this  childlike  artless- 
ness  that  this  people,  living  in  the  midst  of  na- 
tions each  of  which  had  its  own  supreme  god, 
and  entirely  ready  to  admit  the  reality  of  the 
great  gods  of  other  nations  and  their  power,  on 
their  own  territory,  yet  dared  to  set  up  the  God 
of  their  small  and  obscure  nation  as  the  one  sov- 
ereign God,  to  whom  sooner  or  later  all  the  gods 
of  the  nations  must  bow.  Surely  it  was  only  by 
the  fearless  faith  of  childhood  that,  surrounded 
as  they  were  by  intellectual  peoples  that  were 
deeply  perplexed  with  the  problems  of  the  world, 
Israel  was  able,  without  deep  intellectual  pro- 
cesses, to  live  out,  as  has  been  said,  a  religion 
"which  not  only  undertook  to  explain  the  past, 
but  claimed  the  future  as  its  own,"  and  with  the 
artless  daring  of  a  child  "  was  sublimely  confi- 
dent that  the  greatest  forces  of  the  world  were 
working  for  its  ends."  This  spirit  of  childhood 
speaks  in  every  page  of  the  Old  Testament.  It 
is  full  of  folklore,  which  is  at  once  the  wisdom 
and  the  recreation  of  children  and  immature  peo- 
ples. Again  and  again  this  fact  offers  a  clue  to 
a  puzzling  passage  in  the  Bible. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things,  there  must  be 
folklore  in  the  Old  Testament.     Before  the  in- 

•Matt.   18:  3. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       29 

vention  of  writing,  folklore  was  the  only  history 
and  the  only  literature,  if  we  may  use  the  word 
for  that  which  is  not  written.  According  to  the 
ancient  tradition  of  the  church,  devoutly  accepted 
for  hundreds  of  years,  the  narratives  of  Genesis 
were  handed  down  orally  from  Adam  to  Methu- 
selah, from  Methuselah  to  Noah,  from  Noah  to 
Terah,  from  Terah  to  Abraham,  from  Abraham 
to  Isaac,  Jacob,  Joseph,  and  so  on  down  to  Moses, 
who,  under  divine  inspiration,  committed  them 
to  writing;  and  though  this  view  has  necessarily 
been  modified  as  men  have  come  to  know  more 
about  the  growth  of  language,  and  the  beginnings 
of  the  art  of  writing,  yet  something  of  this  kind 
must  have  taken  place. 

And  this  is  folklore  —  the  narrative  of  events 
passed  along  from  lip  to  lip  down  through  the 
ages.  Every  nation  in  the  world  has  it,  and  the 
comparative  study  of  folklore,  carried  on  of  late 
years,  shows  that  in  fundamental  ideas  and  in 
some  formal  characteristics  the  folklores  of  all 
peoples  have  much  in  common.  But  folklore  is 
the  product,  not  of  memory  alone,  but  of  memory 
and  imagination  —  that  divine  faculty  of  the 
child  and  the  childlike.  Much  of  the  folklore  of 
all  peoples  is  cast  in  a  more  or  less  rude  poetic 
form;  not  only  because  the  imagination  is  pecul- 
iarly active  among  primitive  and  childlike  peo- 
ples, but  because  even  a  rude  recitative  or  ballad 


30  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

aids  the  memory,  and  tends  therefore  to  preserve 
the  story  which  has  no  hope  of  preservation  ex- 
cept in  the  memory.10 

The  discovery,  made  in  comparatively  recent 
years,  that  much  of  the  narrative  part  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  poetry  brings  out  as  never  before 
the  use  the  inspired  writers  have  made  of  old 
folklore.  An  illustration  of  it  appears  in  the 
Revised  Version  of  Gen.  4 :  23,  24,  the  "  Sword 
Song."  in  which  Lamech  proudly  boasts  that, 
whereas  Cain  had  been  fain  to  invoke  the  protec- 
tion of  divine  vengeance,  the  inventions  of  his 
sons  have  put  him  above  any  such  need,  since 
he  has  a  sword  and  can  avenge  himself: 

Adah  and  Zillah,  hear  my  voice ! 

Wives  of  Lamech,  listen  to  my  speech ! 

I  slay  a  man  for  wounding  me, 

A  youth  for  inflicting  a  stripe. 

Lo,  Cain  would  be  avenged  twice  seven-fold, 

But  Lamech  seventy-seven-fold. 

The  parallelism  of  this  little  poem  is  highly  fin- 
ished, and  parallelism  is  one  of  the  most  obvious 
marks  of  Hebrew  poetry.  This  had  not  been 
discovered  when  our  Authorized  Version  was 
made,  and  in  consequence  the  translation  of  this 
passage  is  obscure  and  confused;  but  the  Revis- 
ers, recognizing  that  it  was  poetry,  were  able  to 
put  the  passage  into  intelligible  English.     The 

10  The    Babel    story    (Gen.    11:1-9)    is   apparently   based   on    an 
old  ballad,   fragments  of  which  appear  in  vss.   3,  4,   7. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       3 1 

poem  is  a  fragment  of  a  ballad,  and  it  gives  us 
good  reason  to  think  that  there  were  other  bal- 
lads circulating  among  the  people,  recounting 
the  exploits  of  the  great  men  of  old  in  the  forci- 
ble and  simple  diction  of  all  ballads. 

A  few  pages  later,  in  the  curse  of  Canaan,11 
we  observe  the  deep  displeasure  of  Noah  finding 
expression  in  the  words,  "  And  let  Canaan  be 
servant  to  him,"  twice  repeated  like  a  refrain, 
after  having  been  made  the  motive  of  the  poem. 
This  is  precisely  the  ballad  style. 

The  Revisers  have  not  observed  that  the  divine 
promise  to  Noah  after  the  flood  12  is  also  a  poem, 
but  it  is,  as  Dr.  Briggs  pointed  out ;  13  and  one 
can  readily  understand  how  carefulness  for  the 
preservation  of  the  words  of  God  would  very 
early  have  caused  this  story  to  fall  into  poetic 
form ;  how,  when  Jehovah  smelled  the  "  odors  of 
gratification,"  Noah's  burnt-offering,  Jehovah 
said  to  his  very  soul: 

I  will  not  again  any  more  curse 

The  ground  for  man's  sake, 

Though  the  structure  of  the  heart  of  man  be  evil  from 

his  youth. 
And  I  will  not  again  any  more  smite 
All  living  things  as  I  have  done; 
During  all  the  days  of  the  earth, 

11  Gen.   9:  25—27. 

12  Gen.  8:  21,  22. 

u Messianic  Prophecy    (Scribners,    1902),   p.    78. 


32  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Seed-time  and  harvest,  and  cold  and  heat,  and  summer 

and  winter, 
And  day  and  night  shall  not  cease. 

We  may  with  reasonable  probability  find  in  these 
lines  a  fragment  of  an  ancient  ballad  of  the 
deluge  —  an  event  almost  certain  to  have  been 
handed  down  in  poetic  form. 

It  is  strikingly  evident,  however,  that  the  par- 
allelism of  this  ballad,  unlike  that  of  the  "  Sword 
Song  "  of  Lamech,  is  very  slight.  The  poem  is, 
in  fact,  a  rude  recitative,  such  as  we  find  among 
our  North  American  Indians  and  among  all 
primitive  peoples  —  the  earliest  attempts  to  please 
the  ear  and  aid  the  memory  by  a  rude  balance  of 
clauses.  There  is  much  of  this  rude  recitative  in 
the  narrative  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  but 
it  was  not  recognized  as  poetry  even  so  recently 
as  the  time  of  the  Revised  Version. 

The  oracle  concerning  Rebekah's  twin  chil- 
dren, in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Genesis,  and 
Isaac's  blessings  of  Jacob  and  of  Esau  in  the 
twenty-seventh,  are  in  poetry;  and  so  is  Isaac's 
blessing  of  Jacob  when  he  sent  him  away;  al- 
though the  Revisers  did  not  perceive  this  passage 
to  be  poetry : 

May  El  Shadday  bless  thee, 

And  may  he  make  thee  fruitful,  and  may  he  multiply  thee, 
So  that  thou  mayest  become  a  congregation  of  people; 
And  may  he  give  to  thee  the  blessing  of  Abraham, 
To  thee  and  to  thy  seed  with  thee, 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT        33 

To  inherit  the  land  of  thy  sojourning, 
Which  God  gave  to  Abraham.11 

All  along  through  the  early  books  we  find  out- 
croppings  of  this  old  ballad  lore.  Much  of  it 
was  gathered  into  written  collections  long  before 
the  books  of  the  Bible  were  written.  At  least 
two  of  these  works  are  mentioned  in  the  books 
of  Moses,  and  must  therefore  be  older  than  those 
books :  the  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah  —  that 
is,  of  Israel  —  and  the  Book  of  Jasher.15 

The  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah  must  have 
contained  some  very  ancient  poems.  A  fragment 
of  what  was  evidently  a  ballad  of  Israel's  journey 
in  the  region  east  of  Canaan  16  is  so  ancient  that 
the  first  word,  Waheb,  has  dropped  out  of  the 
Hebrew  vocabulary.  The  ballad  appears  to  be 
giving  a  sort  of  itinerary  of  the  journey,  telling 
of  the  places  passed  through  by  the  Israelitish 
caravan ;  among  others 

Waheb  in  Suphah  [we  passed] 
And  the  valleys  of  Arnon 
And  the  cliffs  of  the  valleys 

"Gen.   28:  3,   4. 

15  The  Revised  Version  translates  the  latter  "  the  Upright." 
The  meaning  of  the  word  is  not  certain,  but,  so  far  as  the  contents 
of  the  book  are  known,  it  seems  to  be  concerned  with  the  valiant 
deeds  of  heroes,  and  it  may  perhaps  be  more  adequately  named 
"  The  Book  of  the  Valiant."  The  word  "  may  be  taken  as  hero 
or  heroes"  (Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible).  "The  Book  of 
the  Righteous  (or  possibly  Brave)  One  "  (Cheyne,  Encyclopaedia 
Biblica).  Both  authorities  refer  to  an  Arabic  anthology  of  similar 
character,   called   Valor  or   Warlike    Virtue. 

18  Num.    21 :  14,   15. 


34  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

That  descend  to  the  dwellings  of  Ar, 
And  lean  on  the  shoulder  of  Moab. 

It  would  seem  probable  that  the  entire  story  of 
the  wilderness  journey  and  the  conquest  of  the 
district  east  of  Jordan  was  preserved  in  a  series 
of  ballads  of  this  sort,  perhaps  for  the  same  rea- 
son that  the  list  of  the  kings  of  England  has 
been  cast  into  the  doggerel  verse,  "  First  William 
the  Norman,''  etc.,  and  that  Peter  Parley  taught 
the  children  of  two  generations  ago  the  early 
history  of  this  country  in  the  rude  ballad,  "  Co- 
lumbus Was  a  Sailor  Brave  " —  simply  that  the 
facts  might  be  more  easily  remembered.  The 
writer  of  the  narrative  in  Numbers  naturally 
made  little  use  of  such  a  poem,  but  this  poetic 
description  of  the  impressive  scenery  he  could  not 
leave  out ;  nor  could  he  omit  the  song,  also  attrib- 
uted to  the  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah,  in 
which  the  digging  of  the  "  well  of  the  heroes," 
Beer-elim,  was  celebrated ;  the  strong  contrast  be- 
tween this  arduous  digging  and  the  free  up- 
springing  of  the  twelve  fountains  of  Elim,  and 
the  miraculous  outflow  of  Horeb,  being  full  in  his 
mind : 

"  Spring  up,  well !  "  sing  ye  to  it!  [but  it  did  not  spring  up, 
it  had  to  be  digged ;  and  so] 
Which   the  princes  digged, 
Which  the  nobles  of  the  people  delved, 
With  their  scepters,  with  their  staves.17 

17  Num.    _m  :  1 7,    18. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       35 

The  importance  of  the  recognition  that  pas- 
sages like  these  are  poetry,  not  prose,  ancient 
folklore,  not  history,  is  very  great,  especially  in 
doing  away  with  difficulties.  For  example,  the 
story  of  Joshua's  victory  at  Beth-horon.18  That 
noble  record  of  a  great  victory  presents  difficul- 
ties to  the  most  devout  believer;  not  more  to  him 
who  finds  all  miracles  impossible  than  to  him  who 
finds  it  a  perfectly  rational  thing  that  God  should 
make  special  intervention,  out  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature,  in  behalf  of  the  race  upon  whom 
the  well-being  of  all  humanity  depended.  What- 
ever the  future  may  have  to  teach  us,  it  is  certain 
that,  in  the  present  stage  of  scientific  knowledge 
—  that  is,  of  acquaintance  with  the  methods  in 
which  God  reveals  his  rule  over  the  physical  uni- 
verse—  the  intelligent  mind  absolutely  cannot 
picture  to  itself  such  an  event  as  the  sun  standing 
still  —  that  is  to  say,  the  earth  ceasing  its  rota- 
tion —  for  a  single  moment  of  time.  To  ask  any 
thinking  person  to  believe  that  it  happened,  on 
the  authority  of  the  Bible,  is  to  subject  faith  to 
a  very  severe  test;  and  therefore  we  find  com- 
mentators putting  all  sorts  of  forced  interpreta- 
tions on  the  words  to  explain  away  their  obvious 
meaning.  We  will  not  ask  if  it  is  honest  to  jug- 
gle with  words  in  the  Bible  as  we  would  certainly 
not  think  of  doing  if  we  found  them  in  any  other 

18  Josh.    10:  10-14. 


36  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

book,  but  will  simply  inquire  whether  the  words 
really  do  put  this  strain  upon  the  believer's  faith. 
When  we  turn  to  the  narrative  in  the  Revised 
Version,  we  perceive  that  the  account  of  the 
event  is  a  fragment  of  poetry  quoted  from  the 
Book  of  Jasher,  and  probably  a  stanza  from  a 
ballad  recounting  the  valiant  deeds  of  Joshua : 

"  Sun,  stand  thou  still  upon  Gibeon 
And  thou  Moon  in  the  valley  Ajalon!" 
So  the  sun  stood  still  and  the  moon  stayed 
Until    the    people    had    avenged    themselves    upon    their 
enemies.19 

Statements  of  this  kind  are  perfectly  legitimate 
in  poetry.  The  Old  Testament  furnishes  many 
analogous  instances.  Jeremiah  tells  us  that  the 
invasion  of  the  Scythians  caused  all  the  hills  to 
move  to  and  fro.20  A  psalmist  says  that  the 
mountains  skipped  like  rams  and  the  little  hills 
like  lambs,21  but  no  one  has  ever  thought  that  this 
actually  happened.  The  Song  of  Deborah  says 
that  the  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against 
Sisera,22  but  no  one  has  ever  taken  this  statement 
literally;  from  the  first  it  has  been  recognized  as 
poetic.  How  does  it  differ  in  literary  character 
from  the  statement  in  Joshua?  The  historic  in- 
terpretation put  upon  it  is,  indeed,  very  differ- 
ent ;  but  this,  it  seems  to  me,  is  because  that  has 

"»  \'SS.      12,     13.  21  PS.     II4:  4. 

*°Jer.    4:24.  *2Judg.    5:20. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       2>7 

been  taken  to  be  history  which  is  in  fact  litera- 
ture. Turning  again  to  the  story  in  Joshua,  we 
observe  that  in  the  prose  which  follows  the  poetry 
we  read  that  the  Lord  hearkened  to  the  prayer 
of  Joshua,  and  that  he  fought  for  Israel  by  a 
hailstorm;23  but  we  do  not  read  that  the  sun 
stood  still;  simply  that  it  did  not  go  down  until 
after  the  victory;  in  other  words,  that  Joshua's 
prayer  was  answered  by  victory  being  achieved 
before  nightfall. 

Ill 

Much  of  Old  Testament  folklore,  however,  is 
not  poetry,  but  prose.  Let  us  recall  to  mind  the 
various  sorts  of  folklore  with  which  we  are  fa- 
miliar—  the  dear  old  Perrault's  fairy-tales,  the 
lovely  Northern  folklore  that  Grimm  and  Hans 
Andersen  have  given  us,  and  the  Persian  Tales 
and  the  Arabian  Nights.  It  is  especially  useful 
for  Bible  students  of  the  West  to  know  the  Ara- 
bian Nights,  for  they  are  from  the  very  country 
and  the  very  race  from  which  we  have  our  Old 
Testament  stories,  and  they  give  a  more  valuable 
key  to  the  Old  Testament,  the  customs  and  modes 
of  thought  of  the  Hebrew  people,  which  underlie 
its  spiritual  teachings,  than  any  other  work  in 
the  English  language.  Professor  Stowe,  in  his 
celebrated  Introduction  to  Bishop  Lowth's  great 
work  on  prophecy,   for  a  century  the  most  au- 

!3  Josh.    10 :  14,   cf.   vs.    1 1. 


38  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

thoritative  work  on  that  subject  in  any  language, 
observes  that,  whatever  are  the  deficiencies  of 
the  book,  they  are  all  due  to  the  author's  igno- 
rance of  oriental  literature.  As  the  readiest  way 
to  avoid  such  deficiencies,  a  celebrated  professor 
of  biblical  theology  advises  his  students  to  read 
the  Arabian  Nights  through  once  every  year.24 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  the  very 
existence  of  folklore  depends  upon  the  memory 
of  the  people  who  have  it ;  but  a  slight  considera- 
tion of  this  fact  brings  out  the  reason  for  the 
somewhat  mechanical  structure  upon  which  the 
prose  folklore  of  every  people  is  built.  It  is  al- 
ways in  the  interest  of  accuracy,  that  the  mem- 
ory may  preserve  what  there  is  no  paper  and  ink 
to  retain.  We  find  a  very  zealous  care  for  aiding 
the  memory  in  the  lists  of  names  which  so  often 
occur  in  the  Bible,  and  which  are  almost  always 
grouped  in  sevens  or  tens,  or  a  multiple  of  seven 
or  ten.  In  the  first  chapter  of  Matthew  we  are 
expressly  told  that  there  are  fourteen  generations 
from  Abraham  to  David,  fourteen  from  David 
to  the  exile,  and  fourteen  from  the  exile  to  Christ ; 

24  This,  however,  not  in  any  of  the  recent  translations,  such  as 
that  of  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  which  are  exquisite  works  of  English 
literature,  but  hardly  at  all  a  key  to  oriental  literature  or  thought. 
The  invaluable  translation  of  Lane,  in  three  octavo  volumes,  fully 
illustrated  and  furnished  with  admirable  notes,  is  by  itself  almost  a 
liberal  education  in  oriental  ideas  and  customs.  Happy  is  the  Bible 
student  whose  daily  and  nightly  companion  in  childhood  was  this 
important   and    fascinating   work. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       39 

but  reference  to  the  Old  Testament  25  shows  that 
there  are  a  good  many  more  than  this,  and  that 
in  Matthew  a  number  of  names  are  left  out.  The 
important  thing  in  the  writer's  mind  was  to  aid 
the  memory  by  using  a  common  unit,  not  to  pre- 
serve historic  accuracy,  which  was  little  cared  for 
in  those  days.  Just  as  we  lately  saw  that  historic 
fact  is  held  in  the  Bible  as  of  small  moment  com- 
pared with  the  religious  meaning  of  fact,  so  we 
here  see  that  it  was  held  as  of  little  moment  com- 
pared with  accuracy  in  remembering  and  trans- 
mitting the  common  heritage  of  knowledge. 

This  explains  the  mechanical  structure  of  the 
folklore  of  all  peoples.  Everything  is  in  threes 
or  sevens :  three  sisters,  three  knights  in  armor, 
three  royal  mendicants,  Sindbad's  seven  voyages, 
the  barber's  seven  brothers;  every  stratagem  is 
thrice  repeated,  the  heroine  or  the  dragon  or  the 
giant  being  nothing  daunted  by  a  first  and  second 
failure ;  and  every  question  is  put  three  times 
over,  though  the  second  and  third  answer  carry 
one  no  farther  than  the  first.  Southey  made 
charming  use  of  this  old  folklore  style  in  his 
classic  story  of  "  Goldilocks  and  the  Three 
Bears":  "Who's  been  eating  my  soup?" 
"Who's  been  sitting  in  my  chair?"  "Who's 
been  sleeping  in  my  bed?"  repeated  in  turn  by 

25  1    Chron.,   chaps.    2,    3. 


40  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  Great  Big  Bear  and  the  Mother  Bear  and  the 
Tiny  Little  Bear. 

When  we  read  the  Bible  with  stories  like  this 
in  mind,  we  become  very  much  impressed  to  find 
how  many  of  its  narratives  are  cast  in  the  same 
mold.  Three  times  over  Balaam  has  seven  altars 
built,  and  offers  thereon  seven  bullocks  and  seven 
rams;26  Samson27  performed  seven  prodigious 
exploits;  in  one  of  them  he  destroys  the  Philis- 
tines' standing  corn  with  three  hundred  foxes ; 2S 
three  times  he  gives  Delilah  a  false  answer  to  her 
thrice-repeated  question :  "  Tell  me,  I  pray  thee, 
wherewith  thou  mightest  be  bound  ?  "  Three 
times  she  has  liers-in-wait  abiding  in  the  inner 
chamber,  and  challenges  Samson  in  the  selfsame 
words :  "  The  Philistines  be  upon  thee,  Sam- 
son !  "  This  story  has  been  grossly  misappre- 
hended by  nearly  all  commentators,  for  want  of 
appreciation  of  the  literary  form  of  the  narrative. 
It  has  been  held  to  be  a  proof  of  Samson's  brut- 
ish stupidity,  and  so  the  incomparably  valuable 
meaning  of  the  Samson  story  has  been  over- 
clouded. The  reason  for  the  form  of  this  episode 
is  the  reason  for  the  poetic  form  of  the  ballad, 
the  necessity  not  only  for  remembering,  but  for 
accuracy.  Where  nothing  was  fixed  in  print,  the 
only  way  of  insuring  accuracy  in  a  narrative  was 

MXum.,    chaps.    22-24.  M  Judg.    15:4. 

wJudg.,  chaps.    14-16. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       41 

by  casting  it  into  a  form  which  would  be  its  own 
safeguard  against  alteration.  It  was  far  more 
important  that  the  story  should  not  be  corrupted 
by  the  additions  or  the  interpretations  of  the 
ignorant,  as  it  was  handed  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  than  that  in  its  first  telling 
the  minor  details  should  literally  accord  with  fact. 
The  clue  to  the  Old  Testament  narratives  that 
we  have  here  is  really  very  important;  nowhere 
more  so  perhaps  than  in  the  story  of  Elijah, 
which  bears  every  mark  of  being  genuine  folk- 
lore, and  having  been  handed  down  by  word  of 
mouth  for  generations.  The  inspired  perspicacity 
of  the  author,  or,  more  properly,  compiler,  of 
the  book  of  Kings  is  nowhere  more  strikingly 
shown  than  in  his  not  choosing  the  materials  for 
the  Elijah  story  from  the  annals  of  the  kingdom, 
to  which  he  so  often  refers  in  the  book  of  Kings ; 
for  from  first  to  last  Elijah  was  in  opposition  — 
the  "  enemy,"  as  King  Ahab  said,29  of  the  estab- 
lished order.  Without  a  shadow  of  doubt,  his 
story  was  garbled  in  the  royal  annals.  The  writer 
of  the  book  of  Kings  recognized  this,  and  went 
for  his  material  to  the  homes  of  the  people,  per- 
fectly sure  that,  however  much  it  might  have  been 
idealized  in  passing  down  from  lip  to  lip  through 

29  1    Kings    21 :  20. 


42  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

nearly  two  hundred  years,  it  had  still,  by  that 
very  process,  been  kept  essentially  true.30 

Let  us  look  at  the  chapter  which  tells  of  Eli- 
jah's translation.31  Three  times  he  tells  Elisha : 
"  Tarry  here,  I  pray  thee,  for  Jehovah  hath  sent 
me  to  Bethel,  to  Jericho,  to  Jordan."  Three 
times  Elisha  answers:  "As  Jehovah  liveth  and 
as  thy  soul  liveth,  I  will  not  leave  thee."  Twice 
the  sons  of  the  prophets  say :  "  Knowest  thou 
that  Jehovah  will  take  away  thy  master  from 
thy  head  today  ?  "  and  twice  he  answers :  "  Yea, 
I  also  know  it,  hold  ye  your  peace."  It  is  im- 
portant that  we  should  recognize  that  Elijah's 
story  was  for  a  long  time  a  true  folk-tale,  told 
among  the  people  for  generations  before  it  was 
included  in  the  book  of  Kings,  because  to  read  it 
thus  is  to  find  a  simple  answer  to  many  questions 
which  commentators  have  found  very  perplex- 
ing. 

Let  us  take,  for  example,  the  nineteenth  chap- 
ter of  First  Kings,  observing  that  the  framework 
in  the  early  part  of  the  story  is  founded  on  twos 
instead  of  threes,  as  indeed  is  often  the  case  in 
folklore.  The  note  of  folklore  is  struck  at  once 
in  the  language  of  the  opening  verses,  with  the 

80  Elijah's  story  might,  indeed,  have  been  committed  to  writing 
by  one  of  the  prophets  whom  the  compiler  mentions  among  his 
authorities.  The  style,  however,  proves  conclusively  that  this  was 
not  the  case.  It  is  not  prophetic,  and  it  is  precisely  the  style  of 
folklore. 

81  2  Kings,   chap.  2. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       43 

proverbial  expressions,  "  slain  all  the  prophets 
with  the  sword;  "  "  So  let  the  gods  do  to  me  and 
more  also;  "  "  I  am  not  better  than  my  fathers." 
Then  follows  the  twice-repeated  sleep,  and  the 
twice-repeated  call  of  the  angel :  "  Arise  and 
eat."  Next  we  find  the  prophet  in  a  cave  on 
Horeb,  the  sacred  mount,  and  the  word  of  the 
Lord  comes  to  him :  "  What  doest  thou  here, 
Elijah?"  And  he  answers:  "  I  have  been  very 
jealous  for  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Hosts,  for  the 
children  of  Israel  have  forsaken  thy  covenant, 
thrown  down  thine  altars  and  slain  thy  prophets 
with  the  sword,  and  I,  even  I  only,  am  left,  and 
they  seek  my  life  to  take  it  away."  A  second 
time  the  same  question  is  asked  and  the  same 
answer  given,  without  the  change  of  a  syllable, 
although  under  circumstances  so  different  that 
commentators  have  been  appalled  to  find  the 
prophet  learning  nothing  by  the  tremendous  ex- 
perience that  has  come  to  him  between  the  first 
and  second  putting  of  the  question,  and  have  shed 
gallons  of  ink  over  reams  of  paper  in  the  vain 
attempt  to  explain  it.  For  between  the  two  ques- 
tions Elijah  has  had  a  vision  of  God,  and  heard 
a  still  small  voice  that  would,  we  should  say, 
speak  new  wisdom  to  him  who  heard.  But  when 
we  study  the  description  of  this  vision,  the  three- 
fold manifestation  of  the  strong  wind,  the  earth- 
quake, and  the  fire,  in  all  of  which  Jehovah  was 


44  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

not,  before  the  voice  came  in  which  he  was,  then 
we  understand  that  the  preservation  of  this  mar- 
velous story  in  the  mechanical  form  of  folklore 
alone  insured  that  not  one  syllable  of  its  tremen- 
dous meaning  should  ever  be  lost  or  altered.  In 
face  of  the  new  revelation  of  God's  character  and 
watch  over  Israel  which  the  story  of  this  chapter 
gives,  it  is  of  trifling  importance  what  Elijah  did 
or  did  not  say.  The  important  thing  was  that  the 
revelation  of  God  —  an  absolutely  new  addition 
to  the  conception  of  Jehovah  as  it  had  been  in 
the  Hebrew  mind  —  should  not  have  been  cor- 
rupted or  changed  during  the  generations  before 
the  story  was  imperishably  fixed  on  the  written 

page. 

IV 

The  Protean  forms  which  Hebrew  folklore 
takes  on  give  striking  witness  to  that  artless 
childlikeness  of  this  people  which  we  have  before 
observed.  There  is  more  of  the  spontaneity  of 
childhood  in  our  Bible  stories  than  in  the  folklore 
of  any  other  people.  Folk-songs  and  tales  and 
heroic  legends  by  no  means  exhaust  its  amazing 
variety.  There  is  the  fable  pure  and  simple,  with 
a  shrewd  meaning  of  its  own,  such  as  Jotham 
told  to  the  men  of  Shechem  32 —  the  story  how  the 
trees  sought  them  a  king,  and  could  find  none  but 
the  useless  bramble  willing  to  take  up  so  profit - 

^judg.  9:  8-15. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       45 

less  a  calling ;  there  is  the  proverb,  or  by-word  — 
"  As  sure  as  Tabor  is  among  the  mountains  and 
Carmel  by  the  sea;  "  33  there  is  the  riddle,  such  as 
Samson  gave  to  the  Philistines,84  such  as  God 
bade  Ezekiel  put  to  the  exiled  Israelites,35  such 
as  the  queen  of  Sheba  came  to  prove  Solomon 
with.88  We  are  not  told  that  any  of  her  riddles 
have  been  preserved ;  but  they  must  have  been 
of  the  same  character  as  some  in  the  book  of 
Proverbs,  those  interesting  "  number  riddles " 
which  we  do  not  recognize  as  riddles  because,  of 
necessity,  on  committing  them  to  writing,  the 
answers  were  immediately  appended.  The  riddle 
of  "  things  not  to  be  known,"  37 

There  be  three  things  which  are  too  wonderful  for  me, 
Yea,  four  which  I  know  not ; 

the  riddle  of  "  things  not  to  be  borne,"  38 

For  three  things  the  earth  doth  tremble 
And  for  four  which  it  cannot  bear; 

and  that  of  "  things  never  satisfied,"  39 

There  are  three  things  that  are  never  satisfied, 
Yea,  four  that  say  not,  Enough, 

may  have  been  first  put  by  the  queen  of  Sheba 
to  Solomon.     It  would  need  the  wisdom  of  Solo- 

33  Jer.    46:  18.  30  1    Kings   10:  i.  3S  Prov.    30:21. 

"Judg.    14:14.  s7  Prow   30:  18.  MProv.    30:15. 

35Ezek.    17:  1-8. 


46  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

mon  to  discover  their  meaning  if  the  answers  did 
not  immediately  follow  them. 

As  for  proverbs  and  proverbial   sayings,   the 
Old  Testament   fairly   bristles   with  them.     We 
have   found   them   already   in   the   Elijah    story. 
Gideon  appeased  the  Ephraimites,  displeased  at 
not  having  been  earlier  summoned  to  war  against 
Midian,  by  adapting  one  to  their  case:     "  Is  not 
the  gleaning  of  the  grapes   of  Ephraim   better 
than   the  vintage   of  Abi-ezer?"40     Rehoboam 
answered  the  assembly  of  Israel  with  a  proverb : 
"  My  little  finger  shall  be  thicker  than  my  father's 
loins ;  "  41  which  reminds  us  of  our  own  proverb : 
"  He  knows  more  in  his  little  finger  than  another 
in  his  whole  body."    David  quoted  "  the  proverb 
of  the  ancients  "  in  his  remonstrance  with  Saul.42 
Jephthah  makes  much  use  of  proverbs  and  pro- 
verbial expressions :     "  I  have  opened  my  mouth 
unto  the  Lord;"  "I  have  taken  my  life  in  my 
hand."  43     The  prophets  abound  in  them  :     "  As 
with   the   people   so   with   the  priest;"44   "The 
fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's 
teeth  are  set  on  edge; "  45  "  As  sure  as  Tabor  is 
among  the  mountains  and  Carmel  by  the  sea." 
We    remember    our   Lord    quoting   the   popular 
proverb:     "Physician,  heal  thyself."46     In  fact, 

40  Judg.  8:  2.  M  Isa.    24:2. 

41  1    Kings    12:10.  "Jer.   31:29;  Ezek.    18:2. 

42  1    Sam.    24:13.  4e  Luke  4:23. 

43  Judg.    11:  35;    12:  3- 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       47 

he  quotes  a  number  of  proverbs    as  a  careful 
reading  shows. 

Proverbs  of  this  kind  are  not  at  all  to  be  con- 
founded with  those  sententious  aphorisms  and 
moral  epigrams  which  we  find  in  the  book  of 
Proverbs,  embodying  the  worldly  philosophy  of 
the  Hebrews  at  a  later  time.  Those  here  quoted 
are  genuine  folklore,  and  a  recognition  of  this 
fact  often  furnishes  a  valuable  canon  of  interpre- 
tation even  in  the  New  Testament. 


A  strong  characteristic  of  Hebrew  folklore, 
throwing  an  interesting  light  upon  Hebrew  char- 
acter, is  its  sarcasm.  Jotham's  fable  about  the 
trees  is  a  fine  bit  of  sarcasm ;  and  so,  with  all  its 
tenderness,  is  the  fable  the  prophet  Nathan  told 
David  about  the  poor  man  and  his  one  ewe  lamb.47 
There  is  a  fine  sarcasm  in  the  reply  of  the  father 
of  Gideon  to  those  who  charged  his  son  with  sac- 
rilege for  throwing  down  the  altar  of  Baal  and 
building  one  to  Jehovah  :  "  Will  ye  take  upon 
yourselves  to  plead  Baal's  cause  ?  Let  Baal  plead 
for  himself."  48  If  he  is  a  god,  he  is  his  own  wit- 
ness. Centuries  later  Elijah  speaks  in  the  same 
sarcastic  vein  where  he  urges  the  priests  of  Baal 
to  "  cry  aloud  —  for  he  is  a  god :  either  he  is 
musing  or  he  is  gone  aside  or  he  is  in  a  journey, 

11  2  Sam.  12:1-4.  4SJudg.    6:31. 


48  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

or  peradventure  he  sleepeth  and  must  be 
awaked."  4<J  The  satire  is  very  biting  where  the 
prophet  Zechariah  foretells  the  selling  of  our 
Lord  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver :  "  the  glorious 
price  at  which  I  was  valued  of  them"50 — the 
price  of  a  maid-servant.50 

The  classic  expression  of  Hebrew  sarcasm  is 
found  in  their  "  taunt-songs,"  such  as  the  one 
with  which,  after  the  death  of  Sihon,  king  of  the 
Amorites,  Israel  challenged  him  to  come  back 
and  rebuild  his  city,  Heshbon.51  This  poem,  we 
are  told,  circulated  widely  among  "  them  that 
speak  in  proverbs,"  the  Moshelim  —  a  word 
more  correctly  translated  as  "  the  reciters  of  sar- 
castic verses."  These  satirists  appear  to  have 
been  as  important  a  class  among  Israel  as  the 
minstrels  of  ancient  Britain  or  the  improvisatori 
of  Italy. 

This  taunt-song  to  Sihon  mockingly  dares  him 
to  retake  the  capital  he  has  lost : 

Come  ye  to  Heshbon ! 

Let  the  city  of  Sihon  be  built  and  set  up  again. 

Sihon  had  been  before  able  to  conquer  Moab; 
is  it  possible  that  he  cannot  retake  his  own  city? 
So  Psalm  126  tells  how,  when  the  Lord  turned 
again  the  captivity  of  Zion,  the  mouth  of  Israel 
was  filled  with  laughter — not  of  gayety,  but  of 

*•  1    Kings    18:27.  "Num.  51:27-30. 

60  Zecli.   h:  13;  Lev.  27-.  4. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       49 

scorn,  "  the  laughter  of  Truth's  scorn  upon  the 
idols  of  their  conquerors."  And  the  study  of  the 
prophets  shows  how  effective  a  weapon  against 
the  tendency  of  Israel  to  idolatry  the  prophets 

found  in  satire. 

VI 

The  child-spirit  of  Israel  is  most  of  all  evident 
in  the  humor  which,  probably  to  the  student's 
great  surprise,  he  will  find  shimmering  over  many 
pages  of  the  Old  Testament,  when  once  he  be- 
gins to  look  for  it.  Samson,  the  Sunny,  is  full 
of  humor,  with  his  riddles  and  his  repartees,  his 
practical  jokes  and  his  puns.  The  humor  of  Gid- 
eon is  somewhat  grim,  or  perhaps  of  Gideon's 
historian,  where  he  tells  52  how  that  hero  "  taught 
the  men  of  Succoth  "  better  manners  than  to  re- 
fuse him  help  in  time  of  need,  by  thrashing  them 
with  thorns  and  briars.  The  story  of  Micah,  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  chapters  of 
Judges,  is  one  of  the  most  charmingly  quaint  and 
artlessly  humorous  stories  in  all  literature;  and 
a  good  deal  may  be  learned  from  it,  not  only  of 
the  religious  ideas  and  customs  of  the  time  of 
the  judges  (this  is  evidently  the  reason  why 
the  story  is  appended  to  the  book),  but  as  to  the 
mental  attitude  in  which  we  should  approach 
the  narratives  of  the  Old  Testament. 

It  is  not  easy  for  us  to  appreciate  the  puns  of 

MJudg.  8:  16. 


50  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  Old  Testament,  as  nothing  more  quickly  loses 
its  flavor  in  translation  than  a  pun,  but  there  are 
a  surprising  number  of  them.  The  pun  appears 
to  have  been  as  greatly  relished  by  the  Hebrews 
of  ancient  days  as  it  is  by  Arabic-speaking  folk 
today.  There  are  a  number  of  very  satirical 
plays  upon  names  in  the  genealogical  lists,  as  He- 
brew scholars  are  almost  daily  discovering,  mak- 
ing these  once  dry  chapters  very  amusing  reading 
to  those  who  can  detect  these  puns. 

The  jawbone  episode  in  the  story  of  Samson 
shows  the  most  artless  delight  in  this  form  of 
humor.  The  incident  occurred  at  a  place  called 
Lehi.53  Now,  lehi  means  "jaw;"  and  the  rap- 
ture of  Samson  in  ringing  the  changes  upon  the 
word  is  very  evident,  even  to  his  calling  the  place 
in  the  end  "Mount  Jawbone"  (Ramath  lehi). 
The  story  tells  how  the  hero  thirsted,  and  God 
miraculously  provided  a  fountain  for  him,  which 
sprang  up  in  a  hollow  —  not  of  lehi,  the  jawbone, 
but  of  Lehi  the  hill.  The  translators  of  King 
James's  version,  who,  with  all  their  gifts,  were 
entirely  without  the  Hebrew  sense  of  humor,  and 
who  seemed  always  to  think  that  the  more  difficult 
a  thing  would  be  for  them  to  do,  the  greater 
the  honor  to  God  when  he  does  it,  preferred  to 
give  the  grotesque  picture  of  a  fountain  peren- 
nially gushing  out  of  a  jawbone,  though  even 

63  Judg.  15:  9-14. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       5 1 

they  had  to  leave  it  in  Lehi  the  hill  in  the  next 
verse.  The  Revisers  have  made  the  proper  cor- 
rection, and  we  find  nothing  of  this  in  their  ver- 
sion. 

VII 

We  have  seen  how  fearlessly  the  inspired  writ- 
ers of  the  Old  Testament  books  have  used  various 
kinds  of  folklore.  As  we  approach  the  vitally 
important  subject  of  their  treatment  of  the  most 
universal  form  of  folklore,  the  myth,  let  us  try  to 
be  equally  fearless,  perfectly  confident  that  we 
have  here  a  book  inspired  by  God  in  a  sense  in 
which  no  other  book  is  inspired,  and  believing 
that  we  honor  God  far  more  by  seeking  for  what 
actually  is  in  the  Bible  than  by  refusing  to  look 
for  it  lest  we  find  something  there  which  does 
not  agree  with  what  we  have  always  thought  the 
Bible  must  be.  It  is  above  all  things  necessary 
that  we  shall  be  disinterested  as  we  study  its 
treatment  of  those  ideas  which,  among  all  other 
ancient  peoples,  if  not  among  the  Hebrews,  be- 
came mythology  —  ideas  about  deity,  about  the 
origin  of  things,  about  the  world  and  man,  and 
about  man's  relations  with  deity.  If  we  find  any- 
thing in  the  Bible  which  we  did  not  think  was 
there  and  should  not  have  expected  to  find  there, 
let  us  not  try  to  explain  it  away,  or  give  the  words 
any  other  meaning  than  they  honestly  and  ob- 
viously have;  but,  just  because  we  believe  that 


52  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  Bible  is  a  work  of  divine  inspiration,  let  us 
look  with  frank  simplicity  for  the  meaning  of  the 
things  we  do  find  there. 

The  early  chapters  of  Genesis  have  been  the 
ground  of  so  many  conflicts  that  it  is  not  singu- 
lar, perhaps,  that  we  are  somewhat  unduly  sensi- 
tive on  the  subject  of  them. 

We  know  that  every  people  in  the  world  has 
its  myths  about  creation.  To  attempt,  however 
superficially,  to  compare  the  scriptural  account 
with  any  of  them  would  carry  us  into  the  domain 
of  comparative  religions.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that,  since  the  discovery  and  decipherment  of  a 
series  of  Assyro-Babylonian  tablets  now  in  the 
British  Museum,  we  know  that,  so  far  as  the  bib- 
lical account  is  related  to  any  other,  it  is  most 
closely  related  to  the  Assyro-Babylonian  tradi- 
tion, which  we  find  embodied  in  a  great  epic 
poem  of  considerable  poetic  value,  written  on 
these  tablets.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  of  the 
antiquity  of  the  ideas  which  it  embodies;  the 
poem  was  inscribed  long  before  Abraham's  day, 
and  it  is  certain  that  Abraham  must  have  been 
familiar  with  its  ideas  before  his  departure  from 
Chaldea.  He  probably  copied  the  lines  again 
and  again  as  a  school  exercise,  as  we  now  know 
that  boys  did  long  before  his  day. 

Is,  then,  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  simply  the 
Chaldean  folklore  of  this  great  subject,  brought 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT        53 

to  Palestine  by  Abraham  and  by  him  handed 
down  to  his  descendants?  A  few  extracts  from 
the  creation  tablets  of  Assyria  will  show  their 
points  of  likeness  and  nnlikeness  to  the  first  chap- 
ter of  Genesis.  The  first  of  the  seven  tablets 
begins : 

At  that  time  the  heaven  above  had  not  announced, 

Or  the  earth  beneath  recorded,  a  name   [a  thing  —  that  is, 

before  anything  existed]. 
The  unopened  deep  was  their  generator, 
Mummu  Tiamat   [mother  chaos]   was  the  mother  of  them 

all. 
Their  waters  [of   chaos]  were  embosomed  as  one,  and 
The  cornfield  was  unharvested,  the  pasture  was  overgrown ; 
At  that  time  the  gods  had  not  appeared,  any  of  them ; 
By  name  they  were  not  recorded,  no  destiny  had  they  fixed : 
Then  the  great  gods  were  created. 

Here  we  find  matter  coming-  before  divinity. 
The  gods  are  born  of  Mummu  Tiamat 
("Chaos"):  "the  great  gods"  first,  the  lesser 
ones  afterward.  Conflict  between  them  ensues. 
The  fourth  tablet  describes  the  overthrow  of 
Tiamat  —  that  is,  the  bringing  of  order  out  of 
chaos  —  and  tells  howr  Arm,  the  eldest  of  the 
gods,  prepared  the  seven  mansions  of  the  great 
gods: 

He  fixed  the  stars,  even  the  twin  stars,  to  correspond  to 

them. 
He  ordained  the  year,  appointing  the  signs  of  the  zodiac 

over  it, 


54  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

For  each  of  the  twelve  months  he  fixed  three  stars, 
From  the  day  when  the  year  issues  forth  to  the  close ; 
He  founded  the  mansion  of  the  god  of  the   ferry-boat 54 

[the  sun  god],  that  they  might  know  their  bounds. 
That   they  might   not   err    [make   the    mistake   of   shining 

when  they  ought  not],  that  they  might  not  go  astray 

in  anything. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  subject 
which  has  given  rise  to  more  myths  than  any 
other,  provoking  more  effort  to  explain  it,  is  the 
daily  miracle  of  sunrise  and  sunset.  After  fur- 
ther details,  the  account  goes  on : 

He  illuminated  the  Moon-god  that  he  might  watch  over  the 

night, 
And  ordained  for  him  the  ending  of  the  night  that  the  day 

might  be  known  [to  keep  the  sun  in  order ;  a  perfect 

system  of  checks  and  balances,  it  may  be  observed], 
Saying :     "  Month  by  month,  without  break, 

Keep  watch  in  thy  disc, 
At  the  beginning  of  the  month  kindle  the  light   [the  new 

moon], 
Announcing   thy   horns   that  the   heaven   may  know    [that 

it  is  the  beginning  of  the  month]  ; 
On  the  seventh  day,  filling  thy  disc, 
Thou  shalt  open  indeed  its  narrow  contraction." 

In  all  this  we  see  a  striking  resemblance  to  the 
Bible  story  of  creation,  and  a  no  less  striking 
difference.  The  tablets,  like  Genesis,  show  crea- 
tion as  divided  into  seven  successive  days  (or 
acts)  ;  in  Genesis  the  seventh  is  sacred  rest;  in  the 

M  The   sun   is   the    god   of   the   ferry-boat,   because   it   is   always 
crossing   from  one  side  of  the  horizon  to  the  other. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       55 

tablets  the  act  of  creation  still  goes  on.  In  both 
accounts  the  world  was  preceded  by  a  watery 
chaos.  The  order  of  creation  is  so  far  the  same 
that  light  is  created  first,  then  the  firmament  of 
heaven,  and  afterward  comes  the  appointment  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  "  for  signs  and  for  seasons 
and  for  days  and  for  years."  But  there  are  far 
greater  points  of  difference.  In  the  Assyro-Baby- 
lonian  account  light  is  not  called  into  being  by 
a  word  of  God,  but  is  the  result  of  a  conflict  be- 
tween a  deity  and  chaos.  In  the  Assyro-Baby- 
lonian  account  there  is  absolutely  no  religious 
idea ;  the  gods,  as  well  as  men,  have  come  out  of 
chaos,  divine  forces  having  triumphed  over  the 
inherently  evil  forces  of  matter.  In  Genesis  the 
material  universe  is  not  self-existent,  but  is  called 
into  being  by  God;  it  is  not  inherently  evil  or 
inimical  to  man ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  all  very 
good.  In  Genesis  the  truth  of  the  pre-existence 
of  God  and  his  absolute  independence  of  matter 
is  clearly  taught ;  and  when  we  see  how  impossi- 
ble either  the  strong-minded  Assyrians  or  the 
cultured  Greeks  found  it  to  arrive  at  this  idea, 
it  becomes  marvelous  that  the  childlike  Hebrews 
attained  to  it.  Certainly  they  could  have  attained 
it  only  by  an  inspiration  differing  in  kind  no  less 
than  in  degree  from  the  inspiration  of  the  poets 
and  men  of  genius  of  our  own  or  any  other  age. 
Yet  if  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  not  my- 


56  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

thology,  neither  is  it  science.  We  have  got  far 
beyond  the  time  when  it  is  even  thinkable  that  the 
world  was  made  in  six  days ;  and  happily  we  have 
come  to  the  time  when  we  begin  to  see  that  to 
interpret  the  word  "  day  "  figuratively  as  "  pe- 
riod "  or  "aeon"  or  anything  else  than  "day," 
so  long  as  we  interpret  literally  all  the  rest  of  the 
passage  in  which  the  word  stands,  is  a  dishonest 
juggling  with  words.  There  can  be  no  question 
that  the  writer  of  this  chapter  meant  by  "  day  " 
a  period  of  twenty-four  hours.  The  very  fact 
of  a  sabbath  divinely  ordained  at  this  time  is  an 
irrefutable  witness  against  any  other  interpreta- 
tion, since  it  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that 
the  six  days,  as  well  as  the  seventh,  were  literal 
days. 

Not  being  a  scientific  account  of  the  origin  of 
things,  all  attempts  to  harmonize  this  chapter 
with  science  are  entirely  gratuitous.  For  the 
purpose  for  which  it  was  written  it  makes  no 
difference  whether  or  not  this  account  teaches 
that  light  was  made  before  the  sun  or  vertebrate 
animals  before  reptiles.  For  even  a  casual  read- 
ing must  show  that,  though  we  still  have  to  in- 
quire the  purpose  of  this  account,  we  know  that 
it  was  certainly  not  to  teach  science.55 

a  The  "  scientific  "  element  of  the  story  of  creation  belongs  to  an 
early  chapter  in  the  history  of  science;  in  fact,  almost  to  the  begin- 
ning. The  truly  Israelitish  element,  that  which  is  essential  — 
namely,    the   fact  that  God   created   the  world,  and   that  he  controls 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       57 

But  if  neither  myth  nor  science,  what  is  this 
description  ?  It  is  poetry :  an  epic  of  creation, 
cast  in  the  same  mold  as  the  great  Assyro- 
Babylonian  epic,  though  conceived  in  so  different 
a  spirit.  As  a  teaching  of  the  relations  between 
the  world  and  man  —  that  is,  science  —  it  has 
the  childlike  and  imperfect  character  of  all  folk- 
lore; but  as  the  literary  vehicle  for  showing  the 
relation  between  man  and  God  —  that  is,  religion 
—  it  is  so  marvelously  adapted  to  its  purpose  as 
to  prove  itself  inspired.  And  how  much  grander 
and  more  Godlike  must  it  be  (using,  as  we  must, 
relative  words  for  that  which  is  absolute)  to  take 
a  story  which  is  the  common  property  of  all  men, 
familiar  to  the  Hebrew  people,  and  to  all  peoples 
to  whom  this  word  was  to  come,  and,  retaining 
its  shape  and  outline,  so  that  none  who  heard  it 
should  be  confused  by  its  novelty,  so  to  transfig- 
ure its  significance  as  to  make  it  the  revelation 
of  divine  truth ;  how  much  more  like  the  training 
of  children  by  a  father,  than  it  would  have  been 
to  give  them  something  entirely  new  and  un- 
dreamed of  by  them  before !  How  easy  for  men 
to  apprehend  the  truth  that  comes  to  them  by 
the  transfiguration  of  familiar  ideas;  how  diffi- 
cult for  any  man  to  take  in  an  entirely  new  set 
of  ideas !  50 

it  —  is  naturally  expressed  in  the  categories  of  the  writer's  time. 
The  distinctively  Old  Testament  element  is  here  also  the  permanent 
element. 

oa  The    phenomenal    progress    of     Christian     Science,     compared 


58  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

VIII 

A  comparison  of  the  biblical  treatment  of  all 
that  is  set  down  in  the  early  chapters  of  Genesis 
with  the  folklore  of  other  peoples  makes  plainer 
than  any  definition  can  do  the  difference  between 
myth  and  poetry.  True  poetry  has  spiritual  sig- 
nificance; myth,  except  as  we  find  it  in  the  Old 
Testament,  has  none.  Take  the  story  of  para- 
dise, for  example.  Nearly  every  nation  —  Hin- 
du, Assyrian,  Greek,  Norse  —  has  its  myth  of 
the  Tree  of  Life.  The  Greek  precisely  inverts 
the  Hebrew  idea :  it  is  a  virtue  in  Heracles  to 
triumph  over  the  serpent  that  guards  the  golden 
apples  in  the  garden  of  Hesperides ;  the  Hindus 
guard  their  paradise  by  a  dreadful  dragon,  and 
man  has  no  interest  in  it  whatever ;  the  Assyrian 
cedar  and  the  Norse  Yggdrasil  are  alike  without 
religious  import ;  only  in  the  Bible  does  the  story 
of  paradise  show  the  very  condition  of  life  to 
be  communion  with  God.  So,  though  among 
nearly  all  ancient  peoples  we  find  evidences  of  an 
attempt  to  wrestle  with  the  profound  mystery  of 
evil,  only  in  the  story  of  the  fall  do  we  find  the 
truth  that  that  which  separates  from  God  is  sin, 
and  at  the  same  time  are  given  a  hope  that  some- 

with  the  difficulty  with  which  the  devout  mind  receives  the  con- 
clusions of  scholarship,  is  an  illustration  of  this  statement.  Chris- 
tian Science  is  a  transfiguration  (or  a  travesty)  of  familiar  ideas, 
and  those  to  whom  they  appear  to  be  a  transfiguration  receive  them 
with  alacrity.  The  discoveries  of  scholarship  are  entirely  new 
ideas  to  the  unscholarly,  and  it  is  with  the  greatest  possible  difficulty 
that  even   fair-minded  people  who  are  not  scholars  can  receive  them. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT        59 

how  good  shall  be  the  final  goal  of  ill ;  that  man 
shall  eventually  be  victor  over  evil. 

The  commonest  of  all  myths  is  the  deification 
of  a  human  being.  We  find  the  influence  of  this 
idea  in  the  story  of  Enoch ;  but  it  is  there  made 
to  teach  the  marvelous  religious  truth  that  the 
perfect  life  is  a  walk  with  God.  So  with  the 
flood  traditions,  which,  though  not  universal,  are 
found  in  many  parts  of  the  world ;  they  have  ab- 
solutely no  moral  significance;  only  the  story  in 
Genesis  teaches  the  irreparable  disaster  wrought 
by  sin,  and  gives  promise  of  a  new  heaven  and 
a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

The  more  we  study  the  myths  of  other  nations, 
the  more  we  shall  be  impressed  with  the  utter 
absence  of  superstition  in  the  Bible.  At  an  age 
when  superstitious  ideas  prevailed  the  whole 
world  over,  and  in  a  state  of  civilization  in 
which  at  any  period  of  history  superstitions  nat- 
urally cluster  about  everything  —  days,  seasons, 
periods  of  life,  human  relationships  —  it  is  sim- 
ply marvelous  that  we  find  nothing  of  the  sort 
in  Israel.  We  have  only  to  read  Frazer's  Golden 
Bough;  we  have  only  to  reflect  on  the  supersti- 
tious "  medicine  "  practices  of  primitive  peoples, 
to  be  appalled  by  the  fact  that  instinctively  all 
human  relationships,  experiences,  and  functions, 
diseases,  purifications,  festivals,  are  made  a  cen- 
ter of  superstition,  and  to  marvel  at  the  simplicity 


60  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

and  certainty  with  which  in  the  Old  Testament 
all  these  are  raised  into  the  hygienic  or  the  eth- 
ical sphere.  Compared  with  the  universal  cus- 
toms of  primitive  peoples,  the  Mosaic  law,  which 
we  deem  so  burdensome,  is  a  light  and  merciful 
yoke. 

Still  more  remarkable  is  it  to  find  nothing  su- 
perstitious, or  even  mythical,  in  the  Hebrew  idea 
of  God.  Primitive  and  elementary  the  Hebrew 
ideas  often  were.  God  walked  in  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden;  he  was  obliged  to  come  down  to 
see  what  was  going  on  at  Babel;  for  centuries 
he  was  the  one  God  from  the  point  of  view  of 
Israel  only,  and  they  quite  believed  that  the  gods 
of  other  nations  —  Chemosh,  Moloch,  Baal  — 
were  actual  entities,  though  of  no  significance  to 
a  nation  whose  god  was  Jehovah,  a  King  above 
all  other  gods.  Even  the  first  commandment 
does  not  say  there  is  no  other  God  but  Jehovah, 
but  merely  that  Israel  must  acknowledge  no 
other;  and  the  reason  why  is  stated:  because  he 
brought  Israel  out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 

Yet  there  is  never  any  confusion  in  the  mind  of 
Israel  as  to  the  nature  of  Jehovah  —  that  he  is 
spirit  and  not  flesh;  or  as  to  his  character  — 
that  he  is  just  and  wise  and  good.  And  it  is 
marvelous  that  the  Hebrews,  who  were  utterly 
without  metaphysics  and  well-nigh  incapable  of 
abstraction,  whose  language  indeed  has  no  ab- 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       6l 

stract  words,  so  that  in  all  abstract  matters  they 
are  obliged  to  think  in  figures  and  in  terms  of 
imagination,  yet  never  had  any  myth  about  God. 
It  is  more  impressive  than  we  perhaps  are  able 
to  appreciate  that  the  Hebrew  language  has  no 
word  for  "  goddess,"  and  that  all  the  ideas  con- 
nected with  sex  are  absolutely  foreign  to  the 
early  religion  of  Israel.57  The  word  "  goddess  " 
appears  twice  in  Kings,58  but  in  the  Hebrew  it  is 
a  masculine  form,  simply  because  there  was  no 
feminine  form  of  the  word ;  where  other  writers 
speak  of  the  goddesses  of  the  nations,  they  use 
the  word  "  abomination." 

The  Hebrews  neither  identified  God  with  na- 
ture, as  in  pantheism,  nor  deified  the  powers  and 
processes  of  nature,  as  in  mythology.  Nothing 
is  without  God ;  but  all  things  are  merely  his  min- 
isters. He  was  in  the  burning  bush,  but  the  bush 
was  not  divine.59  He  makes  the  clouds  his  char- 
iot;60 but  he  is  not  Aurora,  nor  the  Dawn,  nor 
Apollo.  He  comes  swooping  on  the  wings  of 
the  wind,01  but  he  is  not  JEolus  nor  Zephyrus. 
Elijah  commanded  fire  from  heaven  to  burn  the 
messengers  of  Ahaziah,02  but  this  was  not  a  fire- 

■»  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  the  prophets  in  their  century-long 
warfare  against  strange  gods  never  coin  the  feminine  form,  although 
the  worship  of  female  divinities  was  undoubtedly  practiced.  For 
such  the  word  Astarte  (plural  Astartes),  but  in  Hebrew  Ashtaroth, 
is  used.  The  Hebrew  singular,  Ashtoreth,  has  the  vocalization  of 
bosheth,   "  shame." 

B8  i    Kings    ii  :  s,   33.  "2    Sam.   22:11;    Ps.    104:3. 

69  Ex.   3:2—4.  M  2    Kings    1:  10. 

80  Ps.    104:  3. 


62  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

god.  Though  Abraham  "  came  out  "  from  Har- 
ran,  the  seat  of  the  moon  myth,  and  brought  with 
him  the  "  night  religion  "  of  the  broad  and  burn- 
ing plains  of  Mesopotamia,  where  the  stars  are 
the  chief  objects  of  interest,  astrology  was  no 
part  of  the  Hebrew  religion.  "  The  evening  and 
the  morning  were  the  day  "  with  Abraham  in 
Chaldea,  as  with  all  who  dwell  in  shadeless  re- 
gions, where  traveling  is  done  by  night;  and 
amid  the  shadowing  hills  and  deep  valleys  of 
Palestine,  it  was  still  to  the  stars  c:5  that  he  lifted 
up  his  eyes  to  find  a  witness  to  the  faithfulness 
of  him  who  promised;  but  he  was  not  a  star- 
worshiper. 

Yet  that  there  are  genuine  myths  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  certain,  though  all  of  them  are  used 
in  a  thoroughly  spiritual  way.  Mythical  ani- 
mals play  a  larger  part  there  than  our  English 
translations  permit  us  to  recognize,  though  not 
so  large  as  in  most  mythological  systems.  The 
leviathan,04  the  dragon,65  the  phoenix,66  the  night 
hag  (Littith),61  the  satyr,68  none  of  which  ever 
existed  out  of  mythology,  are  all  there,  and  all 

"Gen.    15:  5. 

M  Job  41:1;  Ps.   104 :  26,  etc. 

95  The  dragon  myth  frequently  occurs.  In  Job  3:8,  "  Let 
those  that  ban  the  ocean  (i.  e.,  magicians)  ban  it  (his  day), 
[those]  who  are  appointed  to  rouse  up  the  dragon."  Amos  9:  3, 
"  the  serpent "  is  properly  translated  "  the  dragon,"  and  it  is 
Jehovah  himself  who  is  speaking.     So  Ps.  74:  13,   14;   Isa.  27:  1,  etc. 

••Job  29:  18.  Cheyne,  however,  thinks  that  this  unknown  He- 
brew word  must  refer  to  a  tree  (see  context  and  LXX).  But 
Hebrew    tradition   makes   it    "  phoenix  "    (R.    V.,   margin). 

"Isa.    34=  14    (R-    V.).  e8Isa.    13:21. 


FOLKLORE  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT        63 

are  treated  seriously.  Even  those  birdlike  or 
beastlike  creatures,  the  cherub  ou  and  the  seraph,70 
appear  to  be  mythical  —  not  angels,  but  personi- 
fications of  processes  of  nature;  perhaps  the  pro- 
tean cloud,  the  zigzag  lightning  —  the  word 
"  seraph  "  appears  to  mean  a  flash  of  fire ;  what, 
precisely,  the  word  "  cherub  "  means  is  not 
known.  In  the  book  of  Job,71  Jehovah  himself 
is  described  as  making  reference  to  these  myths 
for  purposes  of  instruction ;  we  generally  say  that 
he  is  describing  the  crocodile  and  the  hippopota- 
mus, though  we  know  perfectly  well  that  the  de- 
scriptions are  not  at  all  those  of  these  creatures 
and  that  they  precisely  correspond  to  the  dragon 
and  other  mythical  animals. 

Allusions  to  nature-myths  are  not  infrequent 
in  the  prophets.  Amos  says  that  Jehovah  mak- 
eth  the  dawn  winged,72  and  Joel  speaks  of  the 
dawn  spreading  out  her  wings  over  the  moun- 
tains.73 The  Psalmist  pictures  Jehovah  coming 
to  his  help  riding  upon  a  cherub.74  Isaiah  makes 
evident  allusion  to  the  old  myth  that  the  sun  is 
a  bird  which  daily  loses  its  power  of  flight  and 
falls  into  the  sea,  where  its  light  is  quenched : 
"  How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  light-bringer, 
son  of  the  Dawn !  "  75  And  Job  accounts  for 
night  and  day  by  the  very  familiar  old  myth  of 

•'  Ex.   25:  19,  etc.  "Joel  2:  2. 

T0Isa.    6:  2.  u  Ps.    18:  10. 

T1  Job  41:5;  41:  1,  etc.  Te  Isa.  14:  12. 
B  Amos  4:  13    (Heb.). 


64  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  dragon  which  swallowed  the  sun,  and  then  is 
pierced  and  overcome  by  a  god  (in  this  case  Je- 
hovah), freeing  the  light  again.76  Yet  in  all 
these  instances  the  supremacy  of  Jehovah  over 
these  nature-processes,  and  their  sole  function  as 
ministers  of  his  will,  give  to  them,  myths  though 
they  are,  a  genuinely  religious  character.  The 
mythical  character  of  these  stories  and  concep- 
tions has  ceased  to  be  felt  by  the  writers;  they 
have  become  simply  the  vehicles  of  religious 
truth. 

This,  indeed,  is  the  witness  to  the  divine  char- 
acter of  the  Old  Testament,  that  it  does  not  part 
company  with  all  ideas  which  the  best  human 
intellects  had  been  able  to  work  out,  but  that  it 
takes  these  ideas,  the  common  property  of  all 
men,  and  pours  them  full  of  religious  truth. 

The  more  familiar  we  are  with  the  folklore 
of  all  nations,  the  more  competent  we  become  to 
detect  the  folklore  which  is  in  the  Bible,  the 
deeper  and  more  impressive  must  become  our 
apprehension  of  the  divine  inspiration  of  this 
wonderful  book. 

™Job  26:  13  (R.  v.). 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


In  the  poetry  of  a  nation  the  heart  of  a  nation 
is  revealed.  The  poetry  of  the  Bible  shows  the 
heart  of  Israel  —  it  is  the  utterance  of  friendship 
between  God  and  man ;  and  the  poetry  of  Hebrew 
prophet  and  psalmist  remains  to  this  day  the  best 
expression  of  the  emotions  of  the  heart  toward 
God. 

Among  all  peoples  the  first  expression,  not 
only  of  men's  feeling,  but  of  their  thought,  is 
made  in  poetry.  One  reason  for  this  we  have 
seen ;  verse  aids  the  memory  and  guards  against 
change  —  a  very  important  matter  when  the 
memory  is  the  only  medium  by  which  thought 
can  be  preserved.  A  deeper  reason  is  that  poetry, 
being  the  language  both  of  emotion  and  of  im- 
agination, is  the  natural  vehicle  of  utterance  in 
the  infancy  of  peoples  as  of  individuals ;  for  in 
infancy  the  imagination  is  most  vivid  and  the 
emotions  most  clamorous  for  expression.1 

1  "  Poetry  is  the  mother-tongue  of  the  human  race." —  J.  G. 
Hammon  (1730-88),  quoted  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  art.  "  Po- 
etry." 

65 


66  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

From  the  very  beginning,  poetry  was  allied 
with  religion.  It  was  so  with  the  nations  of  the 
East;  it  was  not  less  so  with  the  pagan  nations 
of  Europe.  As  a  brilliant  French  writer  has 
said,  Paganism  was  the  son  of  Poetry,  and  per- 
mitted his  mother  access  to  his  altars.  But  pa- 
gan altars  are  not  her  first  home.  Poetry  was 
holy  before  it  was  superstitious;  that  is,  it  was 
first  of  all  the  genuine  expression  of  the  aspira- 
tion of  the  soul  toward  the  best  it  knew.  The 
difference  between  Hebrew  poetry  and  that  of 
all  other  peoples  is  that,  while  the  latter  degen- 
erated into  superstition,  and  thus  became  the  ex- 
pression of  ignoble  emotions,  Hebrew  poetry 
never  lost  its  early  character.  It  was  the  child 
of  holiness,  as  Israel  was  the  child  of  God.  We 
find  no  Lucretius  or  Sappho  among  the  Hebrew 
poets,  nor  in  their  poetry  the  utterance  of  a  base 
emotion. 

Not  that  it  does  not  express  hatred  and  re- 
venge. The  denunciatory  psalms  are  as  terrible 
as  anything  in  literature.  But  they  are  genuine- 
ly religious,  though  so  far  from  Christian.  All 
the  foes  of  Israel  are  the  foes  of  God,  just  as 
the  history  of  their  wars  was  the  Book  of  the 
Wars  of  Jehovah.  Hebrew  poetry,  knowing  all 
human  interests  —  love  of  nature  as  in  Deborah's 
Ode  and  the  Blessing  of  Moses,  sorrow  in  many 
a   psalm   and   prophecy,    friendship   in    David's 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT      67 

dirge  over  Saul  and  Jonathan,  earthly  love  in 
the  Song  of  Solomon  —  knows  them  all  as  quick- 
ened with  a  spark  of  heaven.  Religion  belongs 
to  the  poetry  of  Israel  as  light  and  heat  to  a  ray 
of  sunlight. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  there  is  no  Hebrew 
poetry  except  such  as  belongs  to  the  religious 
life,  according  to  the  current  unhappy  division 
of  life  into  two,  the  sacred  and  the  secular.  The 
Hebrews  knew  no  such  division.  Lamech's 
"  Sword  Song  "  and  the  "  Well  Song,"  though 
essentially  secular  from  the  prevailing  point  of 
view,  are  not  so  from  the  point  of  view  of  Israel. 
Not  only  the  ceremonials  of  religion,  but  all  as- 
pects of  life  in  Israel,  were  beautified  with  poetry, 
just  because  all  aspects  of  life  were  religious. 
Maidens  went  out  to  the  vineyards  with  songs 
and  dances,  for  the  vintage  festival  was  a  re- 
ligious festival ;  and  it  was  at  a  vintage  festival, 
in  the  turbulent  "  days  when  the  judges  ruled," 
that  the  men  of  Benjamin  "  caught "  their  wives 
as  the  Romans  carried  off  their  Sabine  wives  a 
thousand  years  later.2  The  harp  and  the  lute, 
the  tabret  and  the  pipe,  "  were  in  the  feasts  "  of 
Israel,  with  "  the  noise  of  songs  "  in  the  time 
of  Amos  3  and  Isaiah,4  as  well  as  in  the  early 
days  when  the  women  went  out  with  timbrels 

2Judg.    21:20-23.  '  Isa.  5:12. 

*  Am.   5:  23;   8:10. 


68  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

and  instruments  of  music,  singing  and  dancing, 
to  meet  the  conquering  David,  with  their 

Saul  has  slain  his  thousands, 
And  David  his  ten  thousands.5 

It  was  one  of  the  bitter  woes  of  Jerusalem  in 
the  time  of  siege,  worthy  of  being  named  by  the 
writer  of  Lamentations  with  the  last  extremity  of 
women's  anguish  and  little  children's  suffering, 
that  "  the  young  men  ceased  from  their  music;  "fl 
and  the  Psalmist,  looking  forward  to  the  great 
dedication  festival  of  the  new  earth,  expects,  as 
the  Revised  Version  of  the  eighty-seventh  psalm 
shows  us,  that  "  they  that  sing  as  well  as  they 
that  dance "  shall  say,  "  All  my  fresh  springs 
are  in  thee."  7 

II 

When,  however,  we  speak  of  Hebrew  poetry, 
we  do  not  speak  of  a  metrical  rhymed  composi- 
tion like  English  or  French  or  Italian  poetry. 
The  poetry  of  the  Bible  is  in  general  unrhymed,8 
and  though  it  appears  to  have  metre,  yet  its  char- 
acteristics are  so  unlike  classical  metres  that  schol- 

•  i    Sam.   18:  7. 

•  Lam.    5:  14. 
TPs.  87:  7. 

a  With  the  better  knowledge  of  Hebrew  gained  from  study  of 
the  cognate  living  languages,  rhyme  is  found  in  various  poetical 
and  proverbial  passages,  and  probably  will  be  found  in  others.  E.  g., 
Job  it:  12:  "Even  a  senseless  man  may  be  taught,  And  a  wild 
sss's  colt  may  be  caught."  The  assonance  is  as  in  the  Hebrew. 
The  language  forms  lend  themselves  to  assonance,  and  of  this  there 
are   many    instances. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   69 

ars  are  of  various  minds  as  to  its  nature.  In 
general  it  may  be  said  that,  while  classical  metres 
depend  upon  quantity,  Hebrew  metre  appears  to 
depend  upon  accent.  It  is  certainly  more 
definitely  conditioned  by  the  sense  than  most  clas- 
sical or  modern  metres.  The  line  uniformly  cor- 
responds with  a  break  in  the  sense,  and  the 
symmetry  of  corresponding  lines  is  rather  in  the 
matter  than  in  the  form.  Goethe  very  finely 
adopted  this  method.  Even  in  translation  this 
makes  itself  felt.  It  has  been  compared  with  the 
rhythm  of  the  Nibclungenlied,  and  the  popular 
songs  of  Palestine  today  fall  into  the  same 
rhythm. 

We  know  that  a  great  body  of  the  poetry  of 
Israel  is  lost  to  us :  three  volumes  are  probably 
mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  which  are  not 
included  in  our  Scriptures.  One  is  a  collection 
of  epic  ballads  describing  the  battles  of  Israel, 
called  the  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah ;  9  another 
is  the  collection  of  lyrics  called  in  the  Authorized 
Version  the  Book  of  Jasher  and  in  the  Revised 
the  Book  of  the  Upright.10  There  seems  also  to 
have  been  a  purely  lyrical  collection  of  dirges  — 
a  very  favorite  form  of  poetry  among  the  He- 
brews,   as    is    evident    from    many    allusions.11 

0  Xum.   21 :  14. 

10  2  Sam.  1:  18;  see  p.  33,  n.   15. 

11  Am.  5:2;  Jer.  48:  36;  Ezek.  19:  1;  26:  17,  etc. 


yo  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

"  Jeremiah  made  a  dirge  upon  Josiah,"  untimely 
slain   by    Pharaoh    in   the  battle   of   Megiddo.12 
The  Chronicler  tells  us  that  "  all  the  singing  men 
and  the  singing  women  speak  of  Josiah  in  their 
dirges  to  this  day.     So  they  made  them  a  custom 
in    Israel    and   lo,   they   are  written   among   the 
Dirges."  12     We  do  not,  however,  find  any  such 
poem    referring   to   Josiah's   death    in   the   book 
called  in  our  English  Bible  the  Lamentations  of 
Jeremiah,  but  in  Hebrew  not  attributed  to  Jere- 
miah,   and    called    simply    by    its    first    word, 
"  How ;  "  and  it  seems  probable  that  some  other 
collection  is  referred  to  by  the  Chronicler.     The 
custom  of  poetical  lamentation  was,  indeed,  car- 
ried to  such  an  extreme  in  Jeremiah's  day  that 
he  felt  constrained  to  object  to  it,  in  this  very 
case  of  Josiah,   showing  that  death  was  by  no 
means  the  worst  evil  that  Israel  had  to  appre- 
hend.13 

Weep  not  for  the  dead  [King  Josiah]  nor  bemoan  him, 
But  weeping  weep  for  him  that  goeth  away   [the  exiled 

King   Jehoahaz], 
For  he  shall  never  come  back  nor  see  his  own  country. 

The  metre  of  the  dirge  is  distinctly  recogniza- 
ble. It  consists  of  a  long  and  a  short  line,  in 
the  proportion  of  three  accented  syllables  to  two. 
This  appears  to  be  a  metre  peculiarly  appropriate 
to  elegiac  poetry.     "  What  is  more  natural  than 

13  2   Chron.    35:25.  u  Jer.   22:  10. 


THE  TOETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   71 

that  lamentation  should  begin  with  a  long  effu- 
sion, and  suddenly  be  stifled  in  a  sob?"14  It 
is,  however,  not  confined  to  the  dirge;  we  find 
it  in  songs  of  joy  and  in  prophetic  passages.15 
It  appears  to  be  a  metre  peculiarly  natural  to 
Semitic  peoples.  Arab  mothers  of  today  sing 
lullabies  in  this  metre  to  their  children ;  and  I 
have  repeatedly  observed  it  in  the  singing-games 
of  Syrian  children. 

Although,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  commonly 
held  that  there  is  no  true  drama  in  the  Bible, 
there  are  many  highly  dramatic  passages.  Such 
are  Ps.  2,  where  the  speakers  are  Jehovah,  the 
kings  of  the  nations,  and  the  psalmist ;  the  "  para- 
ble "  against  the  king  of  Babylon  in  Isa.,  chap. 
47;  and  such  is  the  beautiful  prophecy  of  Zion 
in  Isa.,  chap.  63.  The  twenty-fifth  psalm  is  very 
dramatic.  The  first  seven  verses  are  a  prayer  of 
David.  Then  the  oracle  answers  in  three  verses. 
David  replies  in  one  verse,  and  the  oracle  answers 
in  three  (making  another  seven),  and  then  David 
prays  in  seven  more  verses.  The  scheme  of 
sevens  here  exemplified,  though  found  in  all  early 
literatures,  is  peculiarly  characteristic  of  Hebrew 
thought. 

14  Kautsch,  Die  Poesie  und  die  poetischen  Biicher,  p.  12.  Budde 
(Dictionary  of  the  Bible)    calls  it  "  a  limping  metre." 

15  It  occurs  in  Isa.  40:1-3,  and  in  the  great  "Taunt  Song," 
Isa.  14:  4-23,  as  well  as  in  such  passages  as  Ps.  19:  8-10,  in  praise 
of    the   law. 


72  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

III 

Though  a  very  large  portion  of  the  Bible  is 
poetry,  this  fact  was  not  discovered,  or  at  least 
was  not  felt  to  be  a  thing  of  moment,  until  less 
than  two  hundred  years  ago.  It  was  in  1710 
that  Bishop  Lowth  first  pointed  out  to  Bible  stu- 
dents that  "  the  Bible  was  a  work  of  taste,"  and 
should  be  studied  from  that  point  of  view,  and 
it  was  his  discovery  of  the  most  striking  charac- 
teristic of  Hebrew  poetry,  parallelism,  that  en- 
abled him,  not  only  to  prove  his  point,  but  to 
produce  the  most  valuable  work  on  prophecy 
known  for  many  years.  The  Hebrew  manu- 
scripts were  written,  as  has  already  been  ob- 
served, without  punctuation  or  division  of  any 
kind,  and  as  rhyme  is  not  a  usual  characteristic 
of  Hebrew  poetry,  and  its  metre  is  not  easily 
recognizable,  it  is  not  strange  that  it  needed  long 
study  and  a  peculiar  insight  to  make  the  discovery 
that  parallelism  is  its  most  obviously  distinctive 
feature.18 

Now,  the  particularly  interesting  thing  about 
the  parallelism  of  Hebrew  poetry  is  that,  like  all 
other  characteristics  of  poetry,  it  grew  directly 
out  of  the  movements  of  the  dance.  "  The  dance 
is  the  symmetry  and  harmony  of  motion,"  and 
parallelism  is,  as  Herder  says,  the  simplest  form 

18  As   has   been  seen    (p.   32),  parallelism,   though  an  important, 
is  by  no  means   the   one  essential,   mark  of  poetry. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   73 

of  symmetry  in  words.  In  all  languages,  paral- 
lelism is  the  natural  expression  of  feeling.  "  So 
soon  as  the  heart  gives  way  to  its  emotion,  wave 
follows  wave,  and  this  is  parallelism,"  says  Her- 
der. It  is  natural  to  everyone,  natural  to  our- 
selves, to  fall  into  parallelism  in  times  of  deep 
emotion;  all  languages  easily  lend  themselves  to 
it,  and  this  is  why  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  loses 
so  little  by  translation.17 

But  there  is  no  monotony  in  this  rhythmical 
parallelism.  It  varies  greatly,  and  students  com- 
monly distinguish  five  general  classes  of  it,  in 
each  of  which  we  can  feel  this  swaying  dance- 
rhythm.  The  simplest  form  of  parallelism  is 
synonymous,  where  the  second  line  echoes,  and 
thus  enforces,  the  thought  of  the  first;  as  in  Ps. 
114: 

When   Israel  went   forth   out  of                  Egypt, 

The  house  of  Jacob            from           a   people   of   strange 

language, 

Judah  became                    his  sanctuary, 

Israel  [becamel                    his  dominion. 

The  sea  saw  that  and  fled, 

Jordan  was  driven  back; 

and  so  all  the  way  through. 

In  some  cases  the  second  line  is  not  perfectly 
equivalent  to  the  first,  though  parallel  to  it;  as 
in  Ps.  19:  1 : 

17  Parallelism    is    not    distinctive    of    Hebrew    poetry;    it    charac- 
terizes   that    of    nearly    all    the    Semitic    peoples. 


74  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

The   heavens  declare  the   glory   of   God, 

And  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork. 

Slightly  involved  is  antithetic  parallelism, 
which  confirms  the  statement  of  the  first  line  by 
a  contrast  in  the  second.  Many  instances  occur 
in  Proverbs : 

A  wise  son  maketh  a  glad  father; 

But  a  foolish  son  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother.18 

Every  wise  woman  buildeth  her  house ; 

But  the  foolish  plucketh  it  down  with  her  hands.19 

The  antithetic  parallel  is  sometimes  strength- 
ened by  illustrative  clauses.     Thus  in  Cant.  1:5: 

I  am  black 

but  comely 
[black]  as  the  tents  of  Kedar 

[comely]    as   the   curtains   of   Solomon. 

A  third  form  of  parallelism  is  called  synthetic 
or  constructive.  Here  the  second  line  (or  two 
or  three  following  lines)  carries  out  the  idea  of 
the  first  in  one  way  or  another: 

Yet  I  have  set  my  King 

Upon  my  holy  hill  of  Zion.20 

and 

The  wicked  are  not  so 

But  are  like  the  chaff  which  the  wind  driveth  away.21 

18  Prov.  10:1.  Kautsch,  on  such  parallels,  quotes  from  Alci- 
phron:  "It  is  as  if  the  father  spoke  to  his  son  and  the  mother 
repeated  it  "   {Die  Poesie  «.   d.  poetischen  Biicher  des  A.   T.,  p.   8). 

18  Prov.    14:  1.  21  Ps.    1:  4. 

I        2:6. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   75 

Perhaps  the  most  perfect  illustration  of  syn- 
thetic parallelism  is  the  last  chapter  of  Eccle- 
siastes : 

Remember  also  thy  Creator  in  the  day  of  thy  youth, 

Or  ever  the  evil  days  come  and  the  years  draw  nigh 
when  thou  shalt  say  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them. 
While  the  sun  or  the  light,  etc.22 

Here  the  first  statement  includes  all  that  fol- 
lows; the  second  carries  out  the  thought  of  the 
first,  describing  (by  contrast)  the  days  of  youth; 
and  the  remainder  of  the  section  develops  this 
contrast,  describing  old  age. 

A  very  striking  and  effective  form  of  paral- 
lelism has  a  sort  of  graduated  rhythm ;  the  sec- 
ond line  takes  up  some  words  from  the  first,  re- 
peats them,  and  completes  the  thought.  This 
gives  a  peculiar  strength  and  beauty  to  the  poem : 

Till  thy  people  pass  over,  O  Lord  ; 

Till  thy  people  pass  over  which  thou  hast  purchased.23 

Several  instances  of  this  noble  form  of  poetry 
occur  in  Deborah's  Ode: 

Until   that  I,  Deborah,   arose, 
Until  I  arose  a  mother  in  Israel;24 

and 

Because  they  came  not  up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord, 
To  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty.25 

22Eccl.,  chap.  12.                      **Judg.   5:7- 
23  Ex.    15  :  16. 

25  Judg.    5 :  23.  This  graduated  rhythm  may  he  observed  in  the 

Syrian   dance-song  of   today.     1   have  heard  children  in  their  dance- 


76  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

This  kind  of  parallelism,  usually  called  climac- 
tic, is  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  refrain,  that 
well-known  feature  of  ballad  verse.  For  exam- 
ple, David's  dirge  over  Saul  and  Jonathan  26  has 
a  climactic  hero-refrain : 

How  are  the  heroes  fallen, 

How  are  the  heroes  fallen  in  the  midst  of 

the  battle 
How  are  the  heroes  fallen  and  the  weapons 

of  war  perished. 

Psalm  80  has  a  climactic  refrain,  especially 
characterized  by  the  accumulation  of  the  names 
of  God : 

Elohim,  restore  us, 

And  let  thy  face  shine  that  we  may  be  saved  (vs.  3  ) , 

Elohim,  Sabaoth,  restore  us, 

And  let  thy  face  shine  that  we  may  be  saved   (vs.  7  ). 

Elohim,  Sabaoth,  turn  now,  look  from  heaven, 
See  and  visit  this  vine ; 

And  protect  that  which  thy  right  hand  planted, 
And   be  over  the  branch  thou  hast  strengthened  for  thy- 
self (vs.  14). 

Jehovah,  Elohim,  Sabaoth,  restore  us, 

Let  thy  face  shine  that  we  may  be  saved   (vs.  19). 

The  refrain,  which  is  so  striking  a  feature  of 
ballad  lore,  frequently  occurs  in  the  more  studied 

plays  go  through  a  great  number  of  verses,  each  of  which  takes 
up  a  word  or  phrase  from  that  preceding,  so  that  they  hang  to- 
gether like  the  links  of  a  chain.  Interesting  examples,  where  the 
recognition  of  this  form  is  of  great  value  for  interpretation,  occur 
in  Isa.  1:2,  9,  10,  and  17,  18,  23,  27;  Hos.  5:  14,  15;  6:  i,  and 
other  prophetic  passages. 
*"  2  Sam.  1 :  17  ff. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT        yj 

poems  of  the  Old  Testament.  Pss.  107  and  136 
are  important  illustrations.  In  the  latter,  "  for 
his  mercy  endureth  forever,"  recurs  with  every 
verse.  The  refrain  of  Ps.  107  is  the  most  elab- 
orate illustration  of  the  refrain  in  all  literature. 
The  refrain,  "  Why  art  thou  cast  down,"  etc., 
shows  that  Pss.  42  and  43  ("The  Exile's  La- 
ment" it  is  sometimes  called)  were  originally 
one,  divided  perhaps  for  liturgical  purposes. 
Am.  4 :  6-1 1  is  an  impressive  instance  of  the  re- 
frain.    It  recurs  like  the  tolling  of  a  bell : 

"  Yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto  me,"  saith  the  Lord. 

IV 
Another  form  of  parallelism  is  a  variant  of  the 
antithetic  parallel. 

Jacob's  explanation  of  his  blessings  of  Jo- 
seph's two  sons  is  an  antithetic  parallel  com- 
posed of  two  synonymous  parallels  antithetic  to 
one  another  and  forming  a  Tennysonian  stanza: 

He  also  shall  become  a  people 

And  he  also  shall  be  great; 

Howbeit  his  younger  brother  shall  be  greater  than  he 

And  his  seed  shall  become  a  multitude  of  nations.27 

This  form  of  the  antithetic  parallel  is  some- 
times called  introverted.  It  occurs  frequently  in 
both  prose  and  verse. 

Introverted  parallelism  appears,  indeed,  to  be 

"Gen.   48:  19. 


yS  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  mind  — 
one  of  its  ways  of  thinking.  For  example,  the 
catalogue  of  "  the  generations  of  the  sons  of 
Noah"  given  in  Gen.,  chap.  10,  follows  this  or- 
der.    Noah's  sons  are  first  named: 

Shem, 
Ham, 
and  Japheth   (vs.  i) 
The  sons  of  Japheth   (vss.  2-5) 
The  sons  of  Ham   (vss.  6-20) 
The  sons  of  Shem   (vss.  21-31) 

The  sequence  of  these  sections  used  to  be  held 
to  prove  that  Japheth  was  the  eldest  of  Noah's 
sons,  Shem  being  first  named  because  he  was  the 
progenitor  of  the  chosen  people.  In  fact,  it 
proves  nothing  but  that  this  is  the  way  the  He- 
brew mind  worked.  As  Shem  was  first  named 
(being  the  eldest),  his  descendants  were  last  to 
be  considered.  Those  who  have  lived  in  the 
East  have  found  that  this  way  of  thinking  is 
characteristic  of  the  Semitic  mind  in  general. 

In  it  we  find  the  explanation  of  the  arrange- 
ment of  clauses  in  such  passages  as  the  cata- 
logue of  Abraham's  riches  in  Gen.  12:  16.  The 
order  of  it  seems  strange  to  us,  but  is  precisely 
in  accordance  with  the  .arrangement  of  ideas  in 
the  Hebrew  mind.  For  a  reason  which  will 
shortly  appear,  let  me  arrange  the  clauses  thus, 
reading  from  a  to  a' : 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT       79 

c  and  men-servants  and  maid-servants  c' 

b  and  he-asses  and  she-asses  b' 

a  And  he  had  sheep  and  oxen  and  camels  a' 

The  sequence  of  clauses  in  this  passage  has 
from  the  earliest  times  been  a  puzzle  to  western 
commentators.  Why  the  men-servants  and  the 
maid-servants  should  be  wedged  in  between  the 
he-asses  and  the  she-asses  appears  to  be  a  riddle 
without  a  solution.  So  thorough  a  scholar  as 
the  late  Professor  Dillmann,  of  Berlin,  in  the 
final  edition  of  his  work  on  Genesis  (translated 
in  1897),  says  that  "the  mention  of  the  male 
and  female  slaves  between  the  mention  of  the 
he-asses  and  the  she-asses  is  inexplicable,"  though 
he  attempts  to  explain  it  by  an  ancient  gloss  or  a 
copyist's  misplacement.  Now,  without  doubt  a 
number  of  glosses  have  crept  into  the  Old  Testa- 
ment text,  and  there  are  some  evident  instances 
of  displacement  of  matter  by  copyists.  But  there 
is,  perhaps,  too  great  a  willingness  to  accept  one 
or  other  of  these  short  and  easy  roads  to  a  solu- 
tion of  difficulties ;  and  there  ought  to  be  some 
other  evidence  of  gloss  or  misplacement  than  the 
mere  fact  that  the  meaning  of  the  passage  is  not 
obvious. 

Returning  to  the  diagram  given  above,  let  us 
draw  a  line  through  it. 

We  know  that  the  strongest  part  of  the  arch 
is  the  keystone,  that  is,  the  center ;  and  though  it 
is  entirely  at  variance  with  western  ideas  to  put 


80  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  strongest  part  of  a  statement  anywhere  but 
at  the  end  —  so  much  so  that  we  avoid  nothing 
so  carefully  as  an  anticlimax  —  yet  we  can  hardly 


call  that  a  weak  literary  form  which  corresponds 
with  the  strongest  of  all  forms  of  material  con- 
struction; and  this  is  precisely  what  this  form  of 
Hebrew  literature  appears  to  me  to  do.  The 
men-servants  and  the  maid-servants,  being  the 
most  important  part  of  Abraham's  possessions, 
were  naturally  put  in  the  place  which  belongs  to 
the  keystone  of  the  arch.28 

Another  illustration  may  be  found  in  Gen. 
13:  10,  a  passage  the  construction  of  which  also 
disturbs  Professor  Dillmann,  though  he  thinks 
that  "  the  inverted  climax  "  "  may  be  tolerated 
because  the  first  comparison  is  pitched  too  high." 

23  Buckle  speaks  of  Lam.,  chap.  3,  as  forming  "  a  central 
peak "  between  chaps.  1,  2  and  4,  5  (art.  "  Poetry "  in  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  p.  13).  In  the  second  part  of  Isaiah, 
chaps.  49-57  form  such  a  central  peak  divided  from  chaps.  40-47 
and  58-66  by  the  refrain:  "There  is  no  peace  sailh  Jehovah  (my 
God)  to  the  wicked"  (48:22;  57:27).  This  part  of  Isaiah  is 
doubtless  to  be  attributed  to  various  prophets  and  various  periods; 
nevertheless,  someone  gave  the  work  its  present  form,  and  who- 
ever he  was,  his  mind  appears  to  have  worked  in  the  same  way,  on 
a  large  scale,  with  other  Hebrew  minds  in  smaller  matters.  In 
Isaiah  the  "central  peak"  is  the  most  important  part  of  the 
prophecy,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  peculiar  importance  attaches  to 
Lam.,  chap.    3. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   8l 

The  story  tells  of  Lot's  search  for  a  new  home, 
since  it  is  necessary  for  him  and  his  kinsman 
Abram  to  part  company  by  reason  of  the  dis- 
sensions of  their  herdsmen  on  the  question  of 
water  for  their  flocks.  Lot  turns  his  eyes  to  the 
Jordan  district,  and  (a-b-c-c'-b'-a')  : 


c  before  Jehovah  destroyed  Sodom  and  Gomorrah    like  paradise  c' 

b  behold  it  was  well  watered  everywhere        like  the  land  of  Egypt  b 

a  he  beheld  all  the  plain  of  Jordan  as  thou  comest  in  to  Zoar.  a 

There  is  no  anticlimax  "  like  paradise,  like 
the  land  of  Egypt,"  such  as  Professor  Dillmann 
supposes.  This  is  how  the  mind  of  this  Hebrew 
author  worked:  (a)  the  Jordan  plain  was  like 
the  plain  of  Zoar  in  the  Nile  delta;  (b)  it  was 
watered  (by  Jordan)  as  the  land  of  Egypt  was 
watered  (by  the  Nile)  ;  (c)  so  beautiful  and  fer- 
tile was  it  at  this  time  (before  Jehovah  destroyed 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah)  that  it  could  be  compared 
only  with  paradise  with  its  four  life-giving 
streams.  The  puzzling  passage  becomes  a  lovely 
prose-poem,  full  of  exquisite  illustrations.  If 
Lot  saw  half  in  the  plain  of  Jordan  that  we  see 
in  this  little  poem,  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  chose 
it  for  his  abode. 

A  single  strophe  of  Ps.  89  (vss.  28-37)  is  a 
remarkable  instance  of  introverted  parallelism. 
When  we  consider  that  no  thought  of  this  form 


82  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

was  in  the  minds  of  the  translators,  and  that, 
far  from  always  rendering  a  given  word  by  the 
same  English  word,  they  made  it  a  principle  to 
seek  for  variety  in  rendering,  it  is  simply  amaz- 
ing that  the  parallelism  has  been  so  well  pre- 
served. Reading  a  and  a' ,  then  b  and  b',  and  so 
on  until  we  reach  c  and  (f ,  we  find  an  amazing 
parallelism,  till  we  come  to  the  keystone  of  the 
thought  in  the  very  center,  vss.  32,  33  : 

a)   My  mercy  will  I  keep  for  him  for  evermore, 

and  my  covenant  shall  stand  fast  with  him.   (vs.  28) 
b)   His  seed  also  will  I  make  to  endure  for  ever, 
and  his  throne  as  the  days  of  heaven,   (vs.  29) 
c)   If  his  children  forsake  my  lazv,29 

And  walk  not  in  my  judgments;   (vs.  30) 
d)   If  they  break  my  statutes, 

and  keep  not  my  commandments;   (vs.  31) 
c)  Then  will  I  visit  their  transgressions  with  the  rod, 

and  their  iniquity  with  stripes, (vs.  32) 
c')   Yet  my  mercy  will  I  not  utterly  take  from  him, 
nor  prove  false  in  my  truth,    (vs.  33) 
d')   My  covenant  will  I  not  break, 

nor    alter   the    thing   that   is    gone   out  of   my   lips. 

(vs.  34) 
c')  Once  have  I  sworn  by  my  holiness; 
unto  David  will  I  not  lie.   (vs.  35) 
b')   His  seed  shall  endure  for  ever, 

and  his  throne  as  the  sun  before  me.   (vs.  36) 
a)   It  shall  be  established  for  evermore  as  the  moon, 
and  the  witness  in  the  sky  standcth  fast.  (vs.  37) 

M  The  verbal  parallelism  fails  in  vss.  30,  35,  but  not  the  cor- 
respondence of  thought,  which  here  and  in  the  following  parallels 
is  antithetic.  For  a  soul  after  covenanting  with  God  to  forsake 
his  statutes  (vs.  30)  is  to  lie  (vs.  35);  the  judgments  of  God  (vs. 
30)   and   his   holiness    (vs.    35)    are  parallel. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   83 

This  is  a  single  strophe  from  a  great  prophetic 
ode.  A  strophe  is  a  group  of  several  verses,  all 
of  which  belong  to  one  idea.  The  ode  of  Deb- 
orah 30  contains  three  strophes  of  3X3  verses, 
each  with  an  introductory  and  a  concluding  verse. 
The  magnificent  ode  of  Moses31  consists  of  three 
parts  with  four  strophes  in  each  part,  each 
strophe  answered  by  an  antistrophe.  The  form 
of  the  antistrophe  is,  of  course,  the  antithetic 
parallel.  It  reminds  us  of  Greek  lyric  poetry,  in 
which  the  strophic  evolutions  of  the  dance  were 
reproduced  in  an  opposite  direction  by  the  anti- 
strophe. 

V 

We  have  already  seen  that,  though  parallelism 
is  the  most  obvious  mark  of  Hebrew  poetry,  and 
was  the  first  to  be  detected,  yet  it  is  by  no  means 
its  only  distinguishing  characteristic. 

The  poetry  of  prophecy,  as  we  might  expect, 
is  distinguished  rather  by  rhythm  than  by  par- 
allelism. Its  rhythmical  character  has  only  of 
late  been  established,  and  the  translators  of  the 
Revised  Version  have  made  no  effort  to  repro- 
duce it  —  happily,  for  with  all  their  scholarship 
they  are  manifestly  not  poets.  A  number  of 
scholars  have,  however,  undertaken  to  do  so  with 
striking  success. 

Professor  George  Adam   Smith,  of  Glasgow, 

snJudg.,    chap.    5.  a  Deut.,    chap.    32. 


84  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

has  translated  Isa.  63 :  1-7  in  very  rhythmical 
strain.  That  it  is  also  dramatic  will  be  clearly 
perceived : 

Who  is  this  coming  from  Edom, 
Raw-red  his  garments  from  Bossrah ! 
This  sweeping  on  in  his  raiment, 
Swaying  in  the  wealth  of  his  strength? 

I  that  do  speak  in  righteousness, 
Mighty  to  save ! 

Wherefore  is  red  on  thy  raiment, 

And  thy  garments  like  to  a  wine  treader's? 

A  trough  I  have  trodden  alone, 

Of  the  peoples  no  man  was  with  me. 

So  I  trod  them  down  in  my  wrath, 

And  trampled  them  down  in  my  fury; 

Their  life-blood  sprinkled  my  garments, 

And  all  my  raiment  I  stained. 

For  the  day  of  revenge  in  my  heart; 

And  the  year  of  my  redeemed  has  come. 

And  I  looked,  and  no  helper, 

I  gazed,  and  none  to  uphold ! 

So  my  righteousness  won  me  salvation ; 

And  my  fury,  it  hath  upheld  me. 

So  I  stamp  on  the  peoples  in  my  wrath, 

And  make  them  drunk  with  my  fury, 

And  bring  down  to  earth  their  life-blood.32 

The  rhythm  of  the  Hebrew  is  a  natural 
rhythm ;  unlike  the  Greek  and  the  French,  but 
like  the  English,  the  emphatic  syllable  coincides 
with    the   natural    stress   of  the  voice,    and   the 

" "  Isaiah  "    in    the    Expositor's    Bible,    Vol.    II,    p.    443    (Arm- 
Strong   &    Co.). 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   85 

length  of  the  clause  is  closely  related  to  the  pulse 
of  the  blood,  the  beat  of  the  heart,  the  expiration 
of  the  breath.  In  this  it  differs  essentially  from 
Latin  poetry  and  that  of  its  daughter-languages. 
The  difference  between  prose  and  poetry  in 
any  language  is,  however,  made  clearest,  not  by 
rhythm  or  metre  or  parallelism,  or  by  any  struc- 
tural characteristic,  but  by  imagery.  We  use 
figures  in  poetry  which  we  may  not  use  in  prose. 
The  imagery  of  Hebrew  poetry  is  very  remarka- 
ble. In  no  other  literature  in  the  world  is  it  so 
daring,  yet  in  no  other  is  it  so  reverent.  Forms 
of  speech  are  used  with  reference  to  God  which 
would  seem  impious  if  found  elsewhere,  and  it 
is  very  significant  that  we  do  not  find  them  im- 
pious here.  What  other  poet  could  dare  to  say, 
speaking  of  natural  afflictions,  pestilence,  famine, 
and  such  like: 

O  thou  sword  of  Jehovah,  how  long  will  it  be  ere  thou  be 

quiet? 
Gather  thyself  into  thy  scabbard !  rest,  be  still !  33 

The  simplicity  of  the  imagery  is  no  less  im- 
pressive. Metaphors  of  the  most  stupendous  im- 
port are  drawn  from  the  common  arts  of  life. 
"  Thou  didst  thresh  the  nations  in  anger,"  says 
Habakkuk ; 34  and  Joel  cries :  "  Put  ye  in  the 
sickle,  for  the  harvest  is  ripe:  tread  ye,  for  the 
wine  press  is  full,  the  vats  overflow,  for  their 

"Jer.    47:  6.  MHab.  3:  12. 


86  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

wickedness  is  great."  35  "  O  thou  my  threshing, 
the  corn  of  my  floor,"  groans  Isaiah,  "  that  which 
I  have  heard  from  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of 
Israel,  have  I  declared  unto  you."  3G 

Many  of  the  most  significant  illustrations  are 
drawn  from  such  ecclesiastical  things  as  priests' 
ornaments  and  vestments.  In  Ps.  93:  1,  "The 
Lord  reigneth,  he  is  appareled  with  majesty," 
the  word  "  appareled  "  is  the  term  specially  ap- 
plied to  the  dress  and  ornaments  of  priests. 
When  the  Psalmist  says, 

My  frame  was  not  hidden  from  thee, 

When  I  was  made  in  secret, 
And  curiously  wrought  in  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth,37 

the  word  "curiously  wrought"  is  that  used  with 
reference  to  the  most  subtle  art  of  Phrygian 
workmen,  that  of  designing  in  needlework,  an 
art  wholly  devoted  to  the  sanctuary  and  attrib- 
uted to  supernatural  guidance  in  the  case  of 
Bezaleel,  the  chief  worker  on  the  tabernacle. 

"  Who  covereth  thyself  with  light  as  with  a 
garment,"  38  refers  to  the  holy  of  holies. 

All  sorts  of  inanimate  objects  are  personified : 
"  Let  the  earth  hear ;  "  "  Give  ear,  O  ye  heav- 
ens ;  "  "  Let  the  hills  hear  thy  voice ;  "  "  Let  the 
sea  roar,  let  the  field  exult,  let  the  trees  of  the 
wood  sing  for  joy."  39 

MJoel  3:  i3-  3TPs.   139:  15. 

8*  Isa.    21:10.  S8  Ps.    104:2. 

39  Isa.    34:1;    Deut.    32:1;    Mic.    6:1;    Ps.    96:11,    ra 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   87 

Very  majestic  are  such  personifications  as  pic- 
ture Pestilence  as  marching  before  Jehovah.40 
Hades  extending  her  throat  and  opening  her  in- 
satiable jaws,41  thunder  as  "  the  clangor  of  Je- 
hovah." 42  Such  personifications  as  these  throw 
some  light  upon  what  is  called  the  anthropo- 
morphism of  the  Old  Testament  conception  of 
God :  far  more  of  it  is  pure  imagery  than  is  gen- 
erally supposed.  Those  who  object  to  the  bib- 
lical doctrine  of  God  that  he  is  there  made  "  a 
magnified  and  non-natural  man,"  do  so  with- 
out apprehending  the  poetic  character  of  many 
of  the  statements  about  him.  They  are  figura- 
tive; and  people  of  trained  minds  should  have  no 
difficulty  in  discerning  this.  The  Bible  descrip- 
tions of  God  are  figurative,  partly  because  figures 
give  a  more  nearly  just  idea  of  things  than  ab- 
stract statements  can  do,  and  partly  because  the 
Hebrew  language,  like  the  vocabulary  of  a  child, 
had  no  words  for  abstract  ideas.43 

VI 

Nothing  adds  more  to  the  vividness  and  beauty 
of  the  Bible  poetry  than  an  understanding  of  the 

"Hab.   3:  5- 

"■  Isa.    5:  14. 

"Ps.   29:  3,  4,   5,   7,   8,   9. 

43  Human  qualities  are  transferred  to  the  personality  of  God 
"  graphically  as  could  not  but  happen  when  done  by  the  vivacious, 
poetical,  powerful  phantasy  of  the  people  of  Israel." —  Davidson- 
Old  Testament   Theology,  p.    109. 


88  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

situation  to  which  it  refers.     It  has  been  said  that 
the  reason  why  Browning's  poetry  is  difficult  is 
that  he  always  takes  for  granted  that  his  readers 
know  all  that  he  knows.     The  range  of  Brown- 
ing's knowledge  was  amazing,  and  few  readers 
are  equally  at   home  in   all   its  realms.     Those 
who  are  so  find  his  poetry  as  easy  reading  as 
Tennyson's,  and   far  easier  than  Wordsworth's. 
So  with  the  Bible:  much  of  it  is  obscure  from 
our  lack  of  knowledge  of  historic  facts  and  of  the 
circumstances  under  which  the  passage  was  writ- 
ten.    When  we  can  ascertain  these,  the  obscurity 
vanishes.     A  knowledge  of  the  historic  setting, 
furthermore,    adds    significance    and    makes   the 
passage    more    telling.     Ps.     no,    a    messianic 
psalm  to  us,   must  have  referred,   when  it  was 
written,  to  something  that  the  writer  understood. 
Let  the  reader  turn  to  2  Sam.,  chap.  7,  trying  to 
realize  the  feelings  of  David.     It  was  the  time 
when  his  wish  to  build  a  temple  was  thwarted  by 
God,  but  with  the  check  came  also  the  assurance 
of  God's  continued  favor  to  him  and  his  house, 
the  first   overwhelming  conviction   that   he  was 
founding  a  dynasty  which  should  endure  forever 
in  the   face  of  all   opposition.     Let  him  try  to 
realize  what  this  idea  of  an  enduring  dynasty 
must  have  been  to  one  who  had  never  heard,  in 
all  his  people's  history,  of  anything  like  heredi- 
tary rule. 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  89 

Now  turn  to  Ps.  no.  The  poet  sings  exult- 
antly : 

Jehovah  saith  unto  my  lord  [David], 

"  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand    (as  Jehovah  drives  in  his 
war-chariot  to  overthrow  David's  enemies), 
Until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool." 

Then  David  sees  himself  grasping  the  scepter 
of  a  great  kingdom,  "  the  scepter  of  power  out 
of  Zion,"  and  becoming  a  ruler  in  the  midst  of 
his  enemies;  and  then,  still  driving  along  in  Je- 
hovah's war-chariot,  he  sees  the  Lord's  armies 
in  the  enthusiasm  of  their  patriotism,  their  ser- 
ried ranks  "  in  holy  array  "  as  dewdrops  from 
the  womb  of  the  morning  —  as  bright  in  their 
shining  armor,  as  countless  in  number,  as  the 
dewdrops  that  sparkle  on  the  meadow  in  the  ear- 
ly sunrise.  Many  of  my  readers  are  aware  that 
this  psalm  is  not  now  attributed  to  David  by 
most  scholars,  and  that  this  is  a  sore  grievance 
to  many  devout  souls,  because  our  Lord  quotes 
it  as  by  David.  I  do  not  think  that  this  will  long 
continue  to  be  a  grievance,  as  people  come  better 
to  understand  the  force  of  such  expressions, 
through  literary  study.  Nevertheless,  it  is  very 
certain  that  the  historic  setting  fits  David's  time; 
and  though  I  would  not  set  my  opinion  above 
that  of  trained  scholars,  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  even  some  of  them,  men  of  more  scholar- 
ship than   culture,    would   revise  some   of  their 


go  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

views   if   their  literary   perceptions  were  more 
acute. 

The  Hebrew  genius  for  the  mechanical  con- 
struction of  poetry  often  found  expression  in 
acrostic  or  alphabetic  poems.  The  twenty-fifth 
psalm  is  alphabetic.  Ps.  119  is  shown  in  our 
Bible  to  be  alphabetic  —  each  group  of  eight 
verses  beginning  with  the  same  Hebrew  letter. 
Pss.  9  and  10  are  acrostic,  and  this  fact  is  further 
interesting  as  proving  by  the  initial  letters  in  the 
Hebrew  that  these  two  psalms  were  originally 
one,  for  Ps.  9  has  the  first  part  of  the  alphabet, 
and  Ps.  10  the  remaining  letters,  two  verses  be- 
ing given  to  a  letter.  Ps.  in  has  half  a  verse 
to  each  letter.  Lamentations  is  largely  alpha- 
betical. The  Revised  Version  shows  the  third 
chapter  in  strophes  of  three  verses.  In  Hebrew 
the  verses  in  each  strophe  begin  with  the  same 

letter. 

VIII 

In  the  Revised  Version  the  Psalter  is  divided 
into  five  books,  each  closing  with  a  doxology 
(Pss.  41  :  13;  72:  18,  19;  89:  52;  106:48;  and 
Ps.  150,  which  is  a  doxology).  This  is  the  divi- 
sion in  the  Hebrew  Psalter.  That  these  five 
books  are  not  all  of  the  same  age  is  evident  by  the 
style  and  subjects,  still  more  by  the  feeling  of 
the  psalms  they  contain.  That  some  of  them 
were  independent  psalm-books,  before  they  were 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  91 

united  to  form  the  Hebrew  Psalter,  is  apparent 
from  the  fact  that  the  same  psalms,  or  parts  of 
psalms,  reappear  in  several  of  them,  as  was  inevi- 
table in  a  collection  made  of  several  books  be- 
fore the  art  of  editing  was  invented.  Ps.  60 :  6-8, 
for  example,  is  the  same  as  Ps.  108:7-10,  and 
this  Ps.  108  consists  of  Ps.  57:7-11  prefixed  to 
the  verses  from  Ps.  60.  Ps.  40:  13-17  ap- 
pears alone  as  Ps.  70;  Ps.  53  is  the  same  as 
Ps.  14.  A  psalm  which  is  given  in  1  Chron. 
16:8-36  as  having  been  sung  at  the  dedication 
of  the  tabernacle  is  largely  made  up  of  Ps. 
96  and  parts  of  Pss.  105  and  106.  The  great 
"  Dedication  Ode,"  Ps.  68,  contains  quotations 
from  the  Song  of  Deborah  and  other  psalms. 

These  facts  are  instructive,  for  they  serve  to 
show  that  inspiration  is  something  different  from 
what  we  have  mostly  supposed  it  to  be.  Some 
of  the  most  unquestionably  inspired  passages  in 
the  Bible — passages  which  speak  to  us  with  all 
the  force  of  a  voice  from  God,  or  interpret  our 
own  emotions  as  they  can  be  interpreted  only  by 
one  inspired  —  have  a  structure  so  artificial,  so 
dependent  upon  numerical  correspondences  and 
the  balancing  of  figures,  lines,  and  words,  that 
it  is  evident  that  the  personality  of  the  writer 
had  a  large  share  in  their  production.  Others 
are  so  compounded  from  the  works  of  former 
writers  that  it  is  difficult  to  find  in  them  any 


9-2  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

other  evidences  of  inspiration  than  that  shown 
by  any  compiler  of  taste  and  judgment.  It  is 
at  least  very  evident  that  the  spirit  of  the  proph- 
ets is  subject  to  the  prophets  to  a  far  greater 
degree  than  we  may  have  supposed. 

It  is  good  for  us  to  discover  these  facts,  if 
only  to  show  us  that  we  may  not  dogmatize  on 
the  subject  of  inspiration,  may  not  say  it  must  be 
this  or  that.  The  genius  of  the  Hebrew  people, 
as  a  people,  is  in  their  poetry  to  a  degree  almost 
unknown  in  any  other  literature.  Their  child- 
like character  is  all  there;  in  their  most  exalted 
flights  they  have  not  broken  away  from  the 
child-love  of  the  swaying  dance  and  the  artless 
play  of  setting  opposites  over  against  opposites, 
and  equals  against  equals,  of  balancing  entrance 
with  exit,  as  Rabbi  Akiba  says.  But  is  not  this 
the  very  reason  why  we  may  feel  sure  of  their 
inspiration?  It  is  in  the  child-heart  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  loves  to  dwell.  And  if,  instead 
of  a  mere  dictation  of  something  entirely  foreign 
to  the  man  inspired,  a  supernatural  guidance  to- 
some  truth  utterly  out  of  the  range  of  his  ordi- 
nary experience,  we  find  inspiration  to  have  been 
a  perpetual  indwelling,  a  life  of  God  in  the  soul 
of  the  man  whose  heart  was  as  the  heart  of  a 
little  child,  a  tabernacling  of  the  Holy  One  with 
a  people  who  were  in  an  especial  sense  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Most  High,  so  that  their  national 


THE  POETRY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT   93 

characteristics  and  methods  of  thought  became, 
not  hindrances  to  be  overcome,  but  vehicles  for 
the  communication  of  divine  truth  —  surely  this 
will  not  be  to  us  loss,  but  gain.  For  then,  the 
Bible  appearing  to  us  more  natural,  we  shall  more 
easily  perceive  how  much  more  than  natural  it  is. 
Speaking  to  every  one  of  us,  as  the  apostles  at 
Pentecost  spoke  to  the  Jews  of  the  dispersion,  to 
everyone  in  the  language  in  which  he  was  born, 
it  brings  us  no  bewildering  message,  but  one 
which,  appealing  to  that  which  is  most  true  in 
ourselves,  is  its  own  witness  that  it  is  the  very 
truth  of  God. 


CHAPTER  IV 

HEROES  AND  HEROISM 

I 

When  a  narrative  of  memorable  events  is  such 
as  to  touch  the  imagination,  arouse  the  emotions, 
awaken  the  faculty  of  constructive  imagery,  and 
kindle  the  religious  instinct,  we  call  the  story  an 
epic.  Large  parts  of  the  Bible  narrative,  though 
written  in  prose,  appear  to  be  epic  in  their  nature, 
an  appeal  being  made,  not  only  to  the  conscience 
and  the  intelligence,  but  to  the  imagination  and 
the  emotions  of  the  reader,  the  recital  being  none 
the  less  true  for  its  poetic  interpretation. 

Now,  the  history  of  the  epic  is  one,  whether 
we  seek  forsit  in  Palestine  or  Persia,  India  or 
Greece.  It  begins  in  folklore,  myth  or  legend, 
or  story,  in  which  are  gathered  up  precious  me- 
morials of  events  and  personages  of  national  in- 
terest. As  these  stories  are  handed  down,  they 
pass  through  imaginative  and  poetic  minds;  yet 
all  the  way  along  they  are  the  property,  not  of 
this  or  that  minstrel  or  story-teller,  but  of  the 
people.  The  air  is  full  of  them;  mothers  tell 
them  to  their  children,  and  old  men  relate  them 

94 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  95 

to  the  young  at  the  noonday  rest  or  in  the  night 
halt  on  the  march.  By  and  by  comes  a  true  poet, 
a  maker,  and  gathers  up  these  stories  of  the  peo- 
ple, this  "  epic  stuff;  "  fixing  in  forms  of  imper- 
ishable beauty  these  memorials  which  are  the 
common  property  of  all.  He  is  not  a  prophet,  a 
seer;  he  does  not  ask  for  the  meaning  of  these 
things ;  he  is  a  poet,  a  creator,  who  gives  to  mat- 
ter its  inevitable  form.  It  is  a  question  of  no 
moment  who  this  poet  is ;  for  the  importance  lies 
not  in  him,  but  in  his  subject.  It  adds  nothing 
to  the  ageless  beauty  and  priceless  worth  of  the 
Iliad  or  the  Odyssey  that  Homer  wrote  them; 
for  the  beauty  and  worth  were  always  latent  in 
the  material,  and  he  has  only  given  it  the  form 
that  by  right  belonged  to  it,  so  that  in  studying 
the  Iliad  it  would  aid  us  not  one  whit  to  know 
all  about  Homer,  nor  hinder  us  one  particle  were 
it  conclusively  proved  that  Homer  was  not  its 
author. 

There  is  another  kind  of  epic,  which  literary 
men  distinguish  as  intellectual  and  premeditated. 
Such  are  the  TEncid  and  Paradise  Lost,  in  both 
of  which  the  authorship  is  an  important  factor. 
But  it  is  very  evident  that  nothing  of  this  kind 
is  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  old  records  of 
heroes  and  heroism  which  we  find  in  the  early 
historic   books   are   Homeric,   not   Miltonic;  the 


96  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

property  of  a  whole  people,  not  the  gift  to  them 
of  a  single  inspired  mind. 

The  form  in  which  inspired  minds  cast  this 
common  heritage  molded  the  national  character 
of  the  Hebrews,  as  epic  narrative  always  tends 
to  do,  and  to  a  far  higher  degree  than  Greek  epic, 
for  example,  molded  the  national  character  of 
Greece.  Nothing  is  more  plain  all  through  the 
Bible  than  that  the  minds  of  the  whole  people  of 
Israel  were  steeped  in  a  knowledge  of  their  early 
history,  precisely  by  this  method.  It  is  evident 
in  the  way  the  old  stories  are  referred  to  by  the 
prophets,  to  lend  motive  to  their  appeals  to  the 
people.  Even  to  the  close  of  Old  Testament 
times  copies  of  books  must  have  been  few,  and 
only  a  very  small  learned  class  knew  how  to  use 
them;  yet  the  prophets  always  take  for  grant- 
ed that  the  whole  people  are  perfectly  familiar 
with  the  heroic  tales  of  their  early  history. 
"  Look  unto  the  rock  whence  ye  were  hewn  and 
the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye  were  digged ;  look 
unto  Abraham  your  father  and  unto  Sarah  that 
bare  you,"  1  says  the  great  prophet  of  the  exile. 
"  Thou  wilt  perform  the  truth  to  Jacob  and  the 
mercy  to  Abraham  which  thou  hast  sworn  unto 
our  fathers  from  the  days  of  old,"  says  the  book 
of  Micah;  2-and  Hosea  recalls  to  mind  how  "  Ja- 
cob fled   into  the  country   of  Syria  and   Israel 

1  Isa.    51:1,2.  '  Mic.   7:  20. 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  97 

served  for  a  wife  and  for  a  wife  he  kept  sheep."  3 
"  O  my  people,  remember  now  what  Balak,  king 
of  Moab,  consulted  and  Balaam,  the  son  of  Beor, 
answered  him,"  says  Micah  again.4  Isaiah  al- 
ludes to  Joshua's  great  victory  at  Beth-horon ; 5 
Malachi  urges  God's  choice  of  Jacob  before  Esau 
as  the  motive  of  a  better  allegiance.*5  The  de- 
struction of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,7  the  coming 
up  of  Israel  from  the  "  iron  furnace  "  of  Egypt,8 
the  slaughter  of  Midian  and  the  death  of  the 
king  at  the  rock  Oreb,0  are  mentioned  again  and 
again  as  things  universally  known.  Hosea  as- 
sumes that  the  whole  of  Jacob's  story  is  familiar 
—  his  singular  birth,  when  "  he  took  his  brother 
by  the  heel,"  and  his  manhood,  when  "  he  had 
power  with  God ;  yea  he  had  power  over  the 
angel  and  prevailed."  10  He  even  takes  for  grant- 
ed a  knowledge  of  some  incidents  not  in  Genesis : 
he  tells  how  at  Bethel  Jacob  wept  and  made  sup- 
plication unto  the  angel;11  and  Isaiah  perhaps 
refers  to  some  other  unrecorded  incident,  when, 
prophesying  of  a  happier  future,  he  says :    "  Ja- 

8  Hos.    12:  12. 

*  Mic.    6:  5. 

6  Isa.    28:21;    cf.    Hab.    3:11. 
8  Mai.    1 :  2. 

7  Isa.     1:9;    13:19,    etc.;    Jer.    23:14,    etc.;    Am.    4:11;    Zeph. 
2:  9. 

8  Jer.    11:4;    cf.    Deut.    4:20. 

•  Ps.   83:  11 ;    Isa.    10:  26. 

10  Hos.    12:  3,  4a. 

11  Hos.    12:  46. 


98  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

cob  shall  not  now  be  ashamed,  neither  shall  his 
face  now  wax  pale.12 

That  these  allusions  are  to  some  welUknown 
epic  story  seems  certain  when  we  consider  that 
the  prophets  make  few  allusions  to  Israel's  later 
history  —  to  Solomon  and  his  descendants,  or  to 
the  history  of  the  northern  kingdom,  though  both 
are  full  of  admirable  illustrations  of  the  truths 
they  teach.  They  cannot  take  for  granted  that 
these  are  generally  known.  Nearly  all  the  his- 
toric allusions  of  the  prophets  are  to  that  period 
in  Israel's  history  which  corresponds  to  the  he- 
roic age  of  any  people  —  the  time  before  insti- 
tutions have  become  established,  laws  and  con- 
stitutions and  forms  of  government  —  and  when 
therefore  the  accidental  superiority  of  an  indi- 
vidual, his  energy  and  physical  force,  make  him 
a  leader  and  a  doer  of  deeds  that  leave  a  memory 
and  form  the  staple  of  conversation,  and  the 
true  education  of  a  people  who  have  not  books. 
The  age  of  the  judges  was  such  an  heroic  time; 
Jephthah,  Gideon,  and  all  the  others  are  veritable 
heroes.  The  age  of  the  patriarchs  was  such  a 
time,  and  in  all  the  epic  story  of  the  world  there 
is  no  more  epical  figure  than  the  Hebrew  Ulysses, 
Jacob,  whose  wanderings  covered  nearly  all  the 
known  world,  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Nile. 
The  prophets  know  that  they  may  safely  assume 

ia  Isa.    29:  22. 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  99 

that  all   the  people  are  perfectly  familiar   with 
these  stories. 

II 
What  we  have  in  the  Old  Testament  is  not, 
indeed,  a  poem  like  the  Homeric  epics;  it  is 
mainly  prose,  in  which  ballads  and  folklore  are 
imbedded.  Whether  or  not  it  is  based  upon  an 
ancient  poem,  long  lost  to  the  world,  and  perhaps 
never  committed  to  writing,  is  a  question  that 
would  carry  us  too  far ;  but  the  difference  between 
the  Hebrew  epic,  the  records  of  Israel's  heroes 
and  heroism,  and  any  other  epic,  is  not  mainly 
the  difference  between  prose  and  poetry.  Nor, 
though  it  does  materially  differ  from  other  epics, 
is  that  difference  that  it  presents  a  different  type 
of  manhood ;  the  marvelous  feature  of  all  epic  is 
that,  without  knowing  anything  of  psychology, 
it  shows  human  nature  to  be  always  and  every- 
where the  same,  especially  in  being  religious. 
For  the  epic  is  always  at  the  very  foundation  of 
the  religious  life  of  a  people,  whether  in  India  or 
Scandinavia,  Greece  or  Palestine.  In  these  re- 
spects the  Hebrew  epic  is  like  the  epic  of  all  na- 
tions; it  differs  from  them  in  being  spiritual,  in 
pouring  a  spiritual  meaning  into  the  life  of  man 
with  God.  From  the  days  of  Abraham  the  He- 
brew religion  was  a  spiritual  religion,  and  its 
poets  were  always  to  a  certain  degree  seers. 


IOO  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

III 
This  explains  the  difference  between  the  hero 
stories  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  epics  of 
other  peoples.  The  stories  of  Abraham  and 
Jacob,  of  Joshua  and  Gideon  and  Jephthah  and 
David,  are  epic  stories,  as  full  of  achievement 
and  wordless  suffering,  as  sublime  in  their  pathos 
and  power,  self-conquest,  submission,  as  intense 
in  passion,  as  compelling  in  charm,  as  represen- 
tatively human  in  their  love,  longing,  energy, 
woe,  as  the  stories  of  Hector  or  Agamemnon,  of 
Ulysses  or  Priam.  And  yet  there  is  a  difference 
between  them  which  the  writer  of  the  epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  perceived,  when  he  said  that  of  the 
heroes  of  Israel  the  world  was  not  worthy.13 
They  had  all  the  foibles,  weaknesses,  crimes  of  the 
worthies  of  Greece  and  India  and  the  Northland, 
but  the  vision  and  faculty  divine  were  also  theirs ; 
they  alone  of  all  the  heroes  of  old  were  spiritually 
aware  of  God.14  Their  story  is  inspired,  not  be- 
cause inspired  men  wrote  it,  but  because  they 
themselves  were  inspired  with  the  consciousness 
of  a  divine  being  who  was  also  a  moral  being. 
"  The  other  gods  desired  praises,  homage,  sacri- 
fice; their  God  desired  goodness."  15 

18  Heb.    11:38. 

14 "  The  Hebrew  thought  of  God,"  says  Mr.  Alden  in  the 
work  already  referred  to  (p.  249),  "  was  .  .  .  the  child's  in- 
timate thought,  and  had  in  it  a  naive  feeling  not  discernible  in 
early  pagan    thought." 

18  H.    P.    Smith,   Old  Testament   History,    p.    103. 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  IOI 

The  Greek  epic  had,  indeed,  its  revelation  for 
the  world  —  the  revelation  of  the  beautiful;  but 
the  message  of  the  Hebrew  epics  is  that  the  beau- 
tiful is  also  the  good  and  the  true.  To  the  Greek 
these  were  three,  as  were  the  highest  gods  in  his 
pantheon.  To  the  Hebrew  they  were  one,  and 
could  all  be  expressed  by  the  one  word  "  God." 
It  is  this  that  raises  the  heroism  of  the  Hebrew 
heroes  so  far  above  that  of  all  others,  whether 
they  be  demigods  or  men.  The  Hebrews'  vision 
of  the  good  might  be  as  limited  as  their  notions 
of  the  true  and  beautiful  were  crude  and  bar- 
baric, and  as  their  thought  of  God  fell  short  of 
his  true  character ;  but  the  three  were  never  sep- 
arated. There  was  no  schism  between  the  moral 
and  the  physical  and  the  intellectual ;  all  found 
their  source  and  center  in  God.  This  is  the  ex- 
planation of  that  which  has  puzzled  philosophers 
—  the  fact  that  not  to  artistic  Greece  or  philo- 
sophic India,  but  to  the  childlike  and  immature 
Hebrew,  first  came  the  great  idea  of  unity,  the 
pivotal  idea  of  the  universe,  of  religion,  science, 
art.  In  the  highly  developed  fancy  of  the  Greek 
the  divine  light  was  refracted  into  a  rainbow ;  the 
simple  reverence  of  the  Hebrew  gathered  all  the 
colors  of  the  spectrum  into  white.  To  the  Greek 
the  difference  between  evil  and  good  was  as  that 


102  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

of  one  color  from  another ;  to  the  Hebrew  it  was 
as  that  of  darkness  from  light.16 

Now,  this  deepest  of  all  thoughts,  unity,  was 
first  taught,  not  in  philosophic  terms,  but  in  the 
universal  form  of  epic.  Take  the  story  of  Abra- 
ham,17 for  example,  which  is  in  fact  the  story  of 
the  first  emergence  of  the  monotheistic  idea,  the 
first  glimpse  of  the  cosmical  fact,  unity.  It  is 
epic  pure  and  simple.  The  lovely  pastoral  life, 
the  clustered  tents  under  the  terebinths  of  Mamre, 
where  the  sheik  from  the  far  East,  the  father  of 
his  clan,  lived  peaceful  and  honored  among  the 
native  peoples  of  a  strange  land  —  these  are  the 
property  of  epic.  The  story  tells  us  not  a  word 
of  the  tremendous  soul-struggle  through  which 
Abraham  assuredly  must  have  passed  in  his  Chal- 
dean home,  when  the  impulse  took  possession  of 
him,  imperative  as  the  voice  of  God,  saying: 
"  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country  and  from  thy  kin- 
dred and  from  thy  father's  house  .... 
and  in  thee  shall  all  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed."  Only  through  Isaiah  do  we  get  a 
glimpse  of  it  in  his  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah  who 
redeemed  Abraham."  18  Here  in  Genesis  all  is 
simple,  direct  narrative  —  an  utter  absence  of  the 
subjective. 

"If   memory   serves,    I   owe  this  expression   of  my   thoughts  to 
Miss   Julia  Wedgewood. 

17  Gen.,   chaps.    12-21.  u  Isa.    29:22. 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  103 

The  Iliad  has  nothing  more  artlessly  objective 
than  the  significant  story  of  the  coming  of  the 
three  strangers  to  the  patriarch's  tent,  the  simple 
hospitality,  the  reverence  just  as  simple,  when 
Abraham  discovers  the  divine  nature  of  his  guest. 
There  is  Greece  and  India  and  the  Northland 
over  again  in  the  episodes  of  Gerar  and  Egypt, 
when  the  fatal  beauty  of  the  superficial  and  selfish 
Sarah  so  nearly  wrecked  the  hope  of  the  world. 
Then  comes  the  heroic  incident  of  the  rescue  of 
Lot :  the  sudden  arming  for  war,  when  the  news 
was  brought  Abraham  that  his  clansman  had  be- 
come the  innocent  victim  of  a  conflict  between 
two  great  leagues  of  eastern  potentates;  the  swift 
onrushing  march  at  the  head  of  his  three  hundred 
and  ten  retainers;  the  noble  refusal  to  profit  by 
the  spoil  of  triumph.  In  the  very  spirit  of  the 
epic  is  the  weak  subservience  of  the  hero  to  his 
womankind,  in  the  household  jealousies  between 
the  true  wife  and  the  slave-mother  of  the  first- 
born son ;  the  feminine  disregard  of  consequences 
in  the  banishment  of  the  slave-mother  and  her 
son,  and  the  divine  interposition,  turning  aside  the 
natural  consequences  of  this  freak  of  jealous 
cruelty.  Epic  rises  to  its  highest  expression  in 
the  joy  over  the  birth  of  Isaac  and  the  averted 
tragedy  of  his  sacrifice  —  but  still  it  reads  like 
Homer,  and  the  noblest  poet  of  the  human  race 
rises  to  no  nobler  flight  than  the  twentv-second 


104  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

chapter  of  Genesis.  And  it  is  in  this  epic  story, 
external,  objective,  without  introspection  or  anal- 
ysis, that  we  find  that  revelation  of  unity,  the 
one  God,  the  one  race  in  whom  all  nations  of  the 
earth  were  to  be  blessed,  which  lies  at  the  basis 
of  all  the  conclusions  of  modern  philosophy,  of 
all  the  half-grasped  prophecies  of  modern  science. 
Still  more  of  epic  character  has  the  story  of 
Jacob,19  with  twice  as  much  of  religious  charac- 
ter. The  amazing  truth  of  the  power  of  man 
with  God  emerges  from  his  story  of  Jacob's  in- 
triguing with  his  mother  to  secure  his  father's 
blessing,  his  far  wandering  to  the  ancient  seat  of 
his  father's  house,  his  beautiful  love-story,  his 
flight  from  Paddan-aram  with  all  his  flocks  and 
herds  and  children,  his  fear  of  his  brother  Esau, 
his  conflict  with  God.  Nothing  in  the  Iliad  can 
surpass  it,  especially  as  the  dark  shadows  gather 
over  his  later  life.  Read  as  plain  history,  there 
is  much  in  Jacob's  story  to  perplex  us ;  that  it  has 
not  more  deeply  perplexed  us  only  shows  how 
superficially  and  thoughtlessly  we  read  the  Old 
Testament.  But  read  as  an  epic,  as  a  part,  and 
one  of  the  most  important  parts,  of  the  world's 
heritage  of  noble  thoughts,  it  is  full  of  power. 
Not  that  the  story  is  not  historical,  but  that  it 
is  more  than  historical;   like   Michael   Angelo's 

19  Gen.  25:20  —  chap.  49. 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  105 

Moses,  it  is  of  heroic  mold,  and  has  the  higher 
truth  of  poetic  inspiration. 

The  life  of  David  20  forms  the  connecting  link 
between  epic  and  history,  but  no  life  of  which 
we  have  any  knowledge  is  so  eminently  epical  in 
its  features.  Into  the  secluded  life  of  the  shep- 
herd boy  of  the  Bethlehem  hills  breaks  first  the 
mysterious  event  of  the  prophet  Samuel's  visit 
and  the  anointing  to  some  vague,  unguessed-at 
career.  Then  comes  the  introduction  to  the  court : 
the  king,  they  say,  is  troubled  with  an  evil  spirit 
from  Jehovah  (it  is  always  Jehovah  who  both 
makes  peace  and  creates  evil),  and  nothing  can 
bring  him  quiet  but  such  music  as  the  shepherd 
lad  knows  best  how  to  make.  Then  war  breaks 
out;  the  hosts  of  Israel  and  of  Philistia,  in- 
trenched on  opposite  heights  alike  impregnable, 
dare  make  no  forward  step  on  either  side;  while 
day  by  day  the  giant  champion  struts  proudly 
across  the  narrow  field  that  lies  between,  throw- 
ing his  challenge  to  the  people  of  the  living  God 
—  until  down  from  his  hill  pastures  comes  the 
young  shepherd  lad,  and  with  the  common  weap- 
on of  his  craft,  a  sling  and  a  stone  from  the 
brook,  lays  low  the  enemy  of  his  people. 

The  turn  that  this  event  gives  to  young  David's 
fortunes  is  rather  romantic  than  epical :  the  favor 
of  the  king;  the  love  of  the  king's  son  Jonathan, 

m  1    Sam.    16:  1  —  1    Kings   2:  11. 


106  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

and  the  beginning  of  a  friendship  that  has  come 
down  through  history  as  passing  the  love  of 
women ;  the  love  of  the  king's  daughter  Michal, 
and  David's  marriage  with  her  as  the  reward  of 
deeds  of  prowess;  the  generalship  of  the  king's 
army ;  the  enthusiastic  admiration  of  the  popu- 
lace; the  secretly  growing  jealousy  of  the  king, 
leading  to  attempts  at  David's  life;  his  repeated 
escapes ;  and  finally  his  abandonment  of  the  court 
and  his  last  parting  with  his  friend  —  a  scene 
which  for  pathos  and  poetry  is  unmatched  in  all 
literature.  Then  comes  the  wild  outlaw  life  — 
David  and  his  band  of  hardy  young  condottiori 
seeking  adventures,  now  on  the  wild  steppes  of  the 
Devastation,  now  among  the  Philistines  of  the 
plain,  now  across  the  Jordan  among  his  kindred 
of  Moab,  and  again  among  the  rocks  and  caverns 
of  the  hill  country  of  Judah.  In  this  story  epic 
shades  off  into  romance. 

IV 

All  the  Hebrew  epics  at  which  we  have  glanced 
are  in  prose.  There  is  in  the  Old  Testament  no 
verse  epic,  but  there  is  one  of  mingled  prose  and 
verse  which  is  of  matchless  beauty  —  the  story 
of  Balaam.  The  three  chapters,  Num.,  chaps.  22- 
24,  are  a  literary  gem  unsurpassed  in  the  correct- 
ness and  finish  of  both  prose  and  poetry.  They 
form  a  little  book  by  themselves,  and  in  a  literary 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  107 

study  may  properly  be  so  considered.  The  Ba- 
laam story  is  more  elaborately  told,  and  more 
richly  adorned  with  poetry,  than  any  other  of  the 
Bible  stories.  At  the  same  time,  we  must  observe 
that  the  structure  is  eminently  that  of  folklore, 
with  its  numeric  system  of  three  and  seven.  The 
purpose  of  the  book  is  very  striking;  for  at  that 
early  period21  its  meaning  is  the  thoroughly 
modern  idea  of  the  unity  of  all  mankind ;  only  it 
is  based,  not  on  anthropology,  but  on  God  as  its 
basis  and  Israel  the  unifying  element,  as  was 
promised  to  Abraham :  "  In  thee  shall  all  fami- 
lies of  the  earth  be  blest." 

Balaam  himself  is  a  grandly  drawn  figure,  and 
not  at  all  the  vulgar  deceiver  that  nearly  all  ex- 
positors make  him  out  to  be ;  partly  from  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  remark  in  Deuteronomy 
that  the  children  of  Israel  committed  iniquity  in 
Baalpeor  according  to  the  "  counsel  "  of  Balaam 
—  a  word  which,  in  the  fluid  nature  of  language. 
has  lost  the  meaning  "  oracle,  prophecy,"  which 
it  had  when  first  used  in  this  place.22    Balaam  is 

21  Early  in  this  connection,  at  whatever  period  the  chapters 
may   be    dated. 

22  How  fluid  our  English  language  is,  how  easily  words  take 
on  new  meaning  or  lose  their  first  significance,  was  strikingly 
brought  to  my  knowledge  by  a  lawyer  of  much  oratorical  fame. 
About  twenty  years  ago,  preparing  a  speech,  he  had  occasion  to 
use  the  word  "  humanitarian,"  in  the  sense  which  of  recent  years 
has  become  so  familiar.  To  assure  himself  that  he  was  justified 
in  using  it  in  such  a  sense,  he  turned  to  the  then  latest  edition 
of  a  standard  dictionary  (Webster  or  Worcester,  I  forget  which), 
and  found  there  as  the  only  definition  of  the  word:  "A  Uni- 
tarian;  one    who   denies   the   divinity   of   Jesus   Christ." 


108  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

a  seer  of  such  wide  renown  that  his  fame  has 
spread  from  his  far-distant  home  on  the  Euphra- 
tes to  the  wild  tribes  of  the  Midian  desert  and 
the  untutored  agriculturists  of  Moab.  He  is  a 
diviner  by  profession,  no  doubt  an  astrologer,  like 
many  wise  men  of  his  country  then  and  at  a  later 
day,  that  being  as  far  as  the  science  of  the  stars 
had  yet  been  developed ;  but  Balaam  was  no  vul- 
gar fortune-teller.  He  practiced  divination  as  the 
highest  of  arts,  and  was  by  its  means  actually 
brought  into  communication  with  the  true  God, 
as  the  narrative  explicitly  informs  us.  It  needs 
no  scholarship  to  see  from  his  own  oracles  that 
he  was  always  faithful  to  the  heavenly  vision. 
Though  his  will  was  not  in  harmony  with  the 
will  of  God  on  this  occasion,  we  observe  that  he 
never  for  a  moment  thought  of  resisting  that  will. 
He  did  earnestly  attempt  by  prayers  and  sacrifices 
to  change  it,  and  he  was  severely  reprimanded 
by  the  angel  for  his  predetermination  to  change 
it  if  he  could;  but  when  at  last  he  found  it  was 
not  to  be  changed,  he  abandoned  the  struggle,  fell 
in  with  the  plan  of  God,  and  prophesied  of  Is- 
rael's future,  the  golden  age  of  the  chosen  people, 
with  a  clearness  and  fulness  of  detail  never  sur- 
passed by  any  later  prophet. 

The  story,  in  its  mechanical  structure  and  fre- 
quent repetitions,  gives  evidence  that  this  epic 
writer  took  it  very  much  as  he  found  it  in  the 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  109 

folklore  which  always  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
epic.  The  twice-repeated  embassies  of  Balak, 
king  of  Moab;  the  answers  of  Balaam,  as  much 
alike  as  the  progress  of  ideas  admits;  the  three- 
fold warning  as  he  set  out ;  even  the  medium  by 
which  one  warning  came  —  the  ass  —  all  have 
the  freshness  and  feeling  of  genuine  folklore. 
But  the  character  of  Balaam  here  drawn  is  not 
traditional.  The  figure  before  us  is  the  creation 
of  the  epic  writer,  and  an  accurate  reflection  of 
the  national  spirit  in  some  period  of  Israel's  pros- 
perity. Such  a  picture  of  a  prophet  out  of  Israel 
shows  a  universality  to  which  only  the  greatest 
of  Israel's  prophets  ever  attained. 

The  prophetic  poems  show  the  national  ideal: 
Israel,  the  specially  beloved  of  Jehovah,  who 
abides  in  his  midst,  and  will  cause  the  utter 
extinction  of  all  who  oppose  him,  and  in  particu- 
lar of  Moab,  who  at  the  time  of  the  story  was 
seeking  his  destruction  —  all  this  in  a  highly  dra- 
matic setting.  The  climbing  of  the  steep  ascent 
to  the  "  high  places  of  Baal,"  to  "  the  field  of  the 
watchmen  "  on  the  top  of  Pisgah,  to  the  peak  of 
Peor,  which  looked  toward  Jeshimon,  the  Dry 
and  Parched  Land  of  the  South  Country  of  Ca- 
naan ;  the  building  of  seven  altars ;  the  offering  of 
seven  bullocks  and  seven  rams;  the  withdrawal 
of  the  seer  away  from  altar  and  sacrifice  to  some 
"  bare  height  "  where  he  could  meet  God  alone  — 


IIO  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

these  are  but  the  background  of  the  "  parable," 
not  of  the  seer's  desire,  but  of  God's  will : 

How  shall  I  curse,  whom  God  hath  not  cursed? 

And  how  shall  I  defy,  whom  Jehovah  hath  not  defied  ?  2S 

And  again  the  second  time: 

Behold,  I  have  received  commandment  to  bless : 
And  he  hath  blessed  and  I  cannot  reverse  it. 
He  hath  not  beheld  iniquity  in  Jacob, 
Neither  has  he  seen  perverseness  in  Israel : 
Jehovah  his  God  is  with  him, 
And  the  shout  of  a  king  is  among  them.2* 

And  still  a  third  time: 

How  goodly  are  thy  tents,  O  Jacob, 

Thy  tabernacles,  O   Israel ! 

As  valleys  they  are  spread  forth, 

As  gardens  by  the  river  side. 

As  lign-aloes  which  Jehovah  hath  planted. 

As  cedar  trees  beside  the  waters.25 

The  displeasure  of  Balak  is  all  the  greater  for 
being  complicated  with  superstitious  fear.  First 
he  would  check  this  unsatisfactory  seer.  "  Neith- 
er curse  them  at  all  nor  bless  them  at  all,"  he 
exclaims ;  and  again  with  bitterness  which  he  does 
not  try  to  conceal :  "  I  thought  to  promote  thee 
to  great  honor,  but  lo,  Jehovah  [Israel's  God] 
hath  held  thee  back  from  honor."  But  Balaam 
is  now  past  caring  for  the  honor  of  man.  He  has 
ceased  to  fight  against  God,  and,  yielding  himself 

18  Num.    23:8.  "Num.  24:5,  6. 

14  Num.   23:  20,    21, 


HEROES  AND  HEROISM  III 

to  the  heavenly  impulse,  he  utters  a  series  of  sub- 
lime prophecies,  the  far-reaching-  character  of 
which  would  surely  never  have  been  vouchsafed 
to  any  prophet  whose  will  was  not  in  accord 
with  God's  will : 

I  see  him,  but  not  now : 

I  behold  him,  but  not  nigh : 

There  shall  come  forth  a  star  out  of  Jacob, 

And  a  sceptre  shall  rise  out  of  Israel, 

And  shall  smite  through  the  corners  of  Moab, 

And  break  down  all  the  sons  of  tumult.20 

He  saw  that  the  time  would  come  when  the 
surrounding-  nations  —  Moab,  Edom,  Amalek, 
the  Kenites  —  should  be  no  more ;  when  Assyria, 
his  own  nation,  would  carry  them  all  away.  And 
then  a  vision  rose  before  him  which  forced  a  cry 
of  horror  from  his  lips  :  "  Alas !  who  shall  live 
when  God  doeth  this!  "  27  For  Assyria,  too,  was 
to  be  afflicted  and  come  to  destruction.  No  na- 
tion, no  people,  was  to  stand  against  that  "  one 
out  of  Jacob  "  who  "  should  have  dominion." 

And  so  at  last,  unanswered  and  unreproved. 
Balaam,  having  uttered  his  message,  goes  back 
to  his  own  home,  and  disappears  from  our  sight. 
In  another  part  of  the  book  of  Numbers  we  catch 
a  glimpse  of  him  which  harmonizes  little  with 
what  we  have  seen  of  him  here;  but  with  har- 
monizing Scripture  we  have  not  here  to  do.    The 

20  Num.    24:17.  n  Num.    24:23. 


112  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

epic  story  is  a  unit,  perfectly  self-consistent,  and 
its  meaning  very  clear  —  that  Jehovah  is  the  God, 
not  of  Israel  only,  but  of  all  nations ;  and  that  in 
every  nation  he  may  speak  for  God  whose  will  is 
one  with  the  will  of  God. 

Is  it  necessary  here  to  point  out  to  the  devout 
Bible  reader  the  value  of  recognizing  the  epic 
character  of  these  stories?  Assuredly  it  sets  at 
rest  those  moral  doubts,  and  those  questions  of 
physical  possibility,  which  vex  many  earnest 
souls  who  read  these  stories  as  history.  And  it 
brings  out,  as  they  hardly  have  eyes  to  see  who 
read  them  as  history,  the  unique  character  of  that 
inspiration  which  chose  the  poetry  of  epic  to  re- 
veal high  spiritual  truths  to  minds  too  immature 
to  find  them  in  the  literalness  of  history. 


CHAPTER  V 
EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  THE  STORY  OF  ELISHA 

I 

A  careful  reading  of  chaps.  2-13  of  2  Kings 
suggests  that  these  chapters  are  not  arranged  in 
chronological  order.  For  example,  in  5 :  23  we 
read :  "  So  the  bands  of  the  Syrians  came  no 
more  into  the  land  of  Israel."  But  in  the  very 
next  verse  we  read :  "  And  it  came  to  pass  after 
this  that  Ben-hadad,  king  of  Syria,  gathered  all 
his  host  and  went  up  and  besieged  Samaria." 
Evidently  these  two  sentences  cannot  refer  to  the 
same  time  or  to  two  closely  consecutive  periods 
of  time. 

So  in  5  :  27  we  learn  that  the  curse  of  perpetual 
leprosy  was  pronounced  upon  Gehazi ;  but  in  the 
eighth  chapter  we  find  him  conversing  at  length 
with  the  king,  although  it  is  hardly  probable  that 
a  leper  would  be  admitted  to  the  presence  of  any 
Israelitish  king.  Again  we  may  observe  that  all 
the  remarkable  deeds  of  Elisha  appear  to  fall 
under  the  reign  of  Jehoram,  which  lasted  only 
twelve  years,  although  we  know  that  Elisha  lived 
more  than  forty  years  longer,  into  the  reign  of 

"3 


114  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Joash.  And  if,  indeed,  his  activity  ceased  thus 
early  in  his  life,  it  seems  strange  to  find  Joash  in 
chap.  13  bewailing  Elisha's  approaching  death  as 
the  loss  of  the  strength  of  the  nation,  "  the  char- 
iot of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof."  Surely 
it  would  seem  that  a  vigorous  and  valiant  young 
monarch  need  hardly  be  overwhelmed  with  dis- 
couragement at  the  death  of  a  man  of  more  than 
eighty,  who  during  forty  very  disturbed  years 
had  taken  no  part  in  the  public  life  of  the  nation. 
These  things,  however,  do  not  puzzle  those  who 
know  that  ancient  Hebrew  literary  methods  differ 
from  those  of  modern  writers,  and  that  a  care  for 
historic  sequence  is  not  among  them. 

That  the  deeds  of  so  remarkable  a  man  as 
Elisha  should  have  been  well  known  to  all  the 
people,  learned  and  unlearned,  is  just  what  we 
should  expect.  In  an  age  when  only  a  small 
learned  class  could  read  and  write,  the  stories  of 
Elisha's  wonderful  deeds  must  have  circulated 
widely  from  lip  to  lip.  Hundreds  of  years  before 
the  book  of  Kings  was  written  —  after  the  cap- 
tivity, as  we  know,  since  it  narrates  the  captivity 
—  these  stories  had  no  doubt  crystallized  in  much 
the  form  in  which  we  have  them.  They  must 
have  been  far  more  a  part  of  common  knowledge 
than  the  stories  of  King  Alfred  and  the  cakes, 
or  George  Washington  and  the  cherry  tree,  are 
with  us;  for  they  were  a  part,  not  only  of  the 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     115 

nation's  history  and  literature,  but  of  its  spiritual 
heritage. 

The  writer  of  the  book  of  Kings  apparently 
had  something  of  the  modern  spirit,  so  far  as  the 
search  for  authorities  is  concerned.  He  mentions 
a  number  of  them  —  the  books  of  the  seers  Gad 
and  Iddo,  the  annals  of  the  Kings,  and  others. 
Naturally  he  would  be  careful  to  collect  the  folk- 
stories  about  Elisha,  as  well  as  the  incidents  that 
were  set  down  in  the  annals,  and  he  appears  to 
have  been  very  religiously  careful  not  to  alter 
these  old  stories  in  the  least.  It  had  long  been 
forgotten  under  which  one  of  the  six  kings,  whose 
reigns  Elisha  saw,  this  or  that  incident  took 
place;  and  therefore,  as  will  be  observed,  the 
king  is  never  mentioned  by  name  in  any  of  these 
folk-stories :  he  is  always  simply  "  the  king,"  and 
thus  we  are  quite  at  liberty  to  give  him  whatever 
name  a  careful  study  shows  us  to  fit  the  circum- 
stances best. 

II 

Since  scholars  have  found  out  how  to  decipher 
the  inscriptions  found  on  monuments  and  tablets 
and  cylinders  in  the  long-buried  cities  of  the  far 
East,  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia  and  elsewhere, 
we  are  beginning  to  find  a  very  remarkable  light 
shed  upon  the  history  of  the  Hebrew  people. 
Two  of  these  monuments,  especially,  bear  upon 
the  period   covered  by   Elisha's   life,   and   from 


Il6  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

them,  with  some  help  from  other  inscriptions,  we 
may  gain  such  light  as  will  enable  us  to  rearrange 
the  story  of  Elisha  in  chronological  order,  and 
merely  by  that  rearrangement  to  bring  out  in  a 
striking  way  the  remarkable  services  which  this 
great  prophet  and  patriot  rendered  to  his  coun- 
try.1 

The  two  important  monuments  to  which  I  al- 
lude are  the  Moabite  Stone  and  the  Black  Obe- 
lisk. The  former  was  discovered  in  1868  A.  d. 
by  a  German  missionary  near  the  ancient  city 
Dibon  (Dhiban)  east  of  the  Jordan.  It  is  a  stele 
of  black  basalt,  bearing  an  inscription  in  Phoeni- 
cian characters,  in  which  Mesha,  king  of  Moab,3 
pays  homage  to  Chemosh,  his  god,  for  victories 
over  his  enemies.  The  Black  Obelisk  3  is  a  mon- 
olith erected  by  Shalmaneser  II  of  Assyria  (860- 
825  b.  c.)  at  Kurkh,  among  the  mountains  of 
Armenia.  Upon  it  are  recorded  the  many  cam- 
paigns of  this  warlike  and  energetic  monarch, 
who  reigned  thirty-five  years  from  860  b.  c,  that 
is,  from  the  time  of  Ahab  of  Israel  and  Jehosa- 
phat  of  Judah  to  the  time  of  Jehu  of  Israel  and 

1  Folklore  is  not  history.  Nevertheless  a  kernel  of  fact  as- 
suredly exists  in  each  of  these  folk-tales  about  Elisha.  Without 
assuming  anything  like  historic  accuracy  for  them,  I  have  en- 
deavored to  place  in  its  proper  setting  each  fact  that  they  en- 
shrine. No  reader  can  find  it  difficult  to  distinguish  between  the 
historic  narrative  which  forms  a  part  of  these  chapters  and  these 
folk-tales. 

*  2  Kings  3 :  4. 

•  Now  in  the  British  Museum.  A  cast  of  it  is  in  the  Metro- 
politan  Museum   in   New  York. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA      117 

Joash  of  Judah,  the  period  which  begins  in  the 
book  of  Kings  at  1  Kings  18:29,  and  ends  at 
2  Kings,  chap.  16,  although,  as  we  shall  see,  it  by 
no  means  covers  all  that  is  included  in  this  sec- 
tion. Shalmaneser  was  one  of  the  most  doughty 
warriors  of  that  warlike  race  which  during  this 
period  was  building  up  the  great  world-empire  of 
Assyria.  The  dates  of  all  the  events  recorded  on 
his  obelisk  are  now  accurately  fixed,  for  among 
the  discoveries  is  a  series  of  tablets  containing 
the  eponym  calendar  of  the  Assyrians.  The  epo- 
nyms  were  officials  who  held  office  one  at  a  time 
for  a  single  year,  and  all  the  events  of  Assyrian 
history  are  entered  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 
under  the  name  of  the  eponym  then  in  office. 

This  eponym  calendar  extends  over  several 
hundred  years ;  its  place  in  chronology  is  fixed  by 
an  eclipse  which  occurred  under  one  of  the  epo- 
nyms,  and  which  is  described  with  such  accuracy 
and  fulness  that  astronomers  recognize  it  as  one 
that  took  place  in  763  b.  c. 

Ill 

It  was  in  the  sixth  year  of  Shalmaneser's  reign 
(855  b.  c.)4  that,  having  made  wide  conquests  on 
the  eastward,  the  Assyrian  king  turned  his  steps 
westward  to  southern  Syria,  and  it  is  here  that 
he  comes  in  contact  with  Hebrew  history.    North 

4  His  reign  was  from   859  to  825  b.   C. 


Il8  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

and  east  of  Israel's  domain  lay  the  new  kingdom 
of  Syria  founded  on  the  ruins  of  the  great  Hittite 
empire  in  Solomon's  time  by  Rezon,  an  officer 
of  the  king  of  Zobah,5  another  small  Hittite  prin- 
cipality. Under  the  grandson  of  this  Rezon, 
Ben-hadad  I,  Syria  grew  in  strength,  and  most 
unwisely  first  Baasha  of  Israel  and  afterward 
Asa  of  Judah,  invoked  Ben-hadad's  help  against 
each  other.6  But  they  soon  learned  the  mis- 
take of  such  a  policy,  for  Ben-hadad  not  only 
overran  Israel  and  annexed  all  the  territory  on 
the  upper  Jordan,  and  on  the  Sea  of  Chinneroth 
(Galilee  as  we  now  call  it),  but  even  invaded 
Judah  and  besieged  Jerusalem.  This  we  gather 
from  a  careful  comparison  of  the  accounts  in  the 
Revised  Version  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  with 
certain  recently  discovered  inscriptions. 

The  power  of  the  Hebrew  kingdoms  being  thus 
reduced  by  Syria,  Judah  and  Israel  learned  that 
their  true  policy  was  to  unite  against  this  com- 
mon foe.  Even  this  would  not  have  saved  them 
but  for  the  oncoming  power  of  Assyria,  which 
had  now  reached  the  Mediterranean,  though  still 
keeping  to  the  north.  An  inscription  of  Asshur- 
nasir-pal,  the  father  of  Shalmaneser  II,  in  871 
b.  c,  shows  that  he  was  aware  not  only  of  the 
existence  of  Damascus,  the  capital  of  Syria,  but 
of  "  Omri  Land,"  as  Israel  was  called  from  its 

5  1    Kings   11:23,   24.  si    Kings   15:18,   19. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     119 

king,  Omri,  the  father  of  Ahab;  but  it  was  not 
until  the  year  854,  the  sixth  of  Shalmaneser  II, 
that  an  Assyrian  army  was  led  so  far  south  as 
Damascus.  This  is  how  the  Black  Obelisk  de- 
scribes it : 

In  the  eponymy  of  Dayan  Asshur  [854  b.  c]  in  the 
month  Airu  [May]  on  the  fourteenth  day,  from  Nineveh 
I  departed,  crossed  the  Tigris,  to  the  cities  of  Giammu 
on  the  Balikh  I  approached.  The  fearfulness  of  my 
lordship  (and)  the  splendor  of  my  powerful  arms  they 
feared,  and  with  their  own  arms  they  slew  Giammu  their 
lord  [and  submitted  to  him].  Kitlala  and  Til-sha-apli- 
akhi  I  entered,  my  gods  I  brought  into  his  temples,  I 
made  a  feast  in  his  palaces.  The  treasury  I  opened,  I 
saw  his  wealth;  his  goods  and  his  possessions  I  carried 
away;  to  my  city  Asshur  I  brought  (them).  From  Kit- 
lala I  departed,  to  Kar-Shulman-ashrid  [a  fort  which  he 
had  built  on  a  former  campaign]  I  approached.  In  boats 
of  sheepskin  I  crossed  the  Euphrates  for  a  second  time 
at  its  flood. 

Then  he  enumerates  the  kings  who  submitted 
to  him,  and  continues : 

The  tribute  of  the  kings  on  that  side  of  the  Euphrates 
....  silver,  gold,  lead,  copper,  (and)  copper  vessels,  in 
the  city  of  Asshur-utir-asbat  on  that  side  of  the  Euphrates 
which  (is)  on  the  river  Sagur,  which  the  Hittites  call 
Pitru,  I  received.  From  the  Euphrates  I  departed,  to 
Khalman  I  approached.  They  feared  my  battle  (and) 
embraced  my  feet.  Silver  and  gold  I  received  as  their 
tribute.  Sacrifices  I  offered  before  Adad,  the  god  of 
Khalman  [modern  Aleppo].  From  Khalman  I  departed; 
two  cities  of  Irkhulina,  the  Hamathite,  I  approached. 
Adenam,  Mashga,  Argana,  his  royal  city,  I  captured  .... 


120  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

From  Argana  I  departed,  to  Qarqar  I  approached. 
Qarqar,  his  royal  city,  I  wasted,  destroyed,  burned  with 
fire.7 

Then  he  enumerates  a  long  list  of  chariots, 
cavalry,  and  soldiers  brought  by  the  various  allies 
of  Dadda-idri  (Ben-hadad  II)  ;  among  them 
2,000  chariots,  10,000  soldiers  of  Ahab  of  Israel: 

These  twelve  kings  he  [Ben-Hadad]  took  to  his  as- 
sistance; to  make  battle  and  war  against  me  they  came. 
With  the  exalted  power  which  Asshur,  the  lord,  gave  me, 
with  the  powerful  arms  which  Nergal  [one  of  the  great 
gods  of  Assyria]  who  goes  before  me  had  granted  me, 
from  Qarqar  to  Gilzan  I  accomplished  their  defeat.  Four- 
teen thousand  of  their  warriors  I  slew  with  arms ;  like 
Adad  [the  thunder-god]  I  rained  a  deluge  upon  them.  I 
strewed  hither  and  yon  their  bodies,  I  filled  the  ruins 
with  their  widespread  soldiers,  with  arms  I  made  their 
blood  flow.8 

This  is  the  epoch-making  battle  of  Karkar, 
which  marked  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  Syrian 
independence,  and  the  beginning  of  the  world- 
empire  of  Assyria.  It  took  place  in  the  year  854 
b.  c.  Previous  to  this  battle  had  occurred  a  war 
between  Israel  and  Damascus,  which  ended  in  a 
disastrous  defeat  of  Benhadad  at  Apek  ( 1  Kings 
20:  1-34,9  857  (?)  b.  c).  A  three-years'  truce 
was  concluded  between  the  two  kings,  and  it  was 

T  Rogers,  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (Eaton  and  Mains), 
II,  pp.  7sf. 

8  Ibid.,  p  77. 

8  The  figures  in  parentheses  on  this  and  the  following  pages 
show  what  appears  to  he  the  chronology  of  the  events  and  the  bib- 
lical  account  of  the  life   of   Elisha. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     121 

evidently  during  this  truce  that  Ahab  went  as  the 
ally  of  Benhadad  to  fight  Shalmaneser  at  Kar- 
kar. 

From  the  battle  of  Karkar  we  may  approxi- 
mately calculate  the  date  when  Elisha  was  called 
from  his  plow  to  the  prophetic  career  by  Elijah's 
throwing  his  mantle  over  him  (i  Kings  19:  19, 
855  (?)  b.  c).  Ahab  died  the  year  after  the 
battle  of  Karkar,  and  his  second  son,  Joram  or 
Jehoram,  apparently  exercised  the  regency  during 
the  brief  reign  of  his  invalid  brother  Ahaziah. 
The  revolt  of  Mesha,  king  of  Moab,  broke  out 
immediately  on  Ahaziah's  accession,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  campaign  mentioned  in  2  Kings, 
chap.  3,  Elisha  had  been  long  enough  a  disciple 
of  Elijah  for  the  relation  between  them  to  be 
generally  known.10  It  seems  evident,  therefore, 
that  his  call  must  have  occurred  not  much  before 
or  after  the  battle  of  Karkar.  At  the  time  of  his 
call  he  must  have  been  a  very  young  man,  for 
he  lived  through  the  reigns  of  Ahaziah,  Joram, 
Jehu,  and  Jehoahaz,  and  into  the  reign  of  Joash,11 
a  period  of  at  least  sixty  years.  Elisha  was  a 
true  borderman,  like  the  Scottish  borderers  in 
early  English  history.  His  home  was  Abel  Me- 
holah  on  the  Jordan.  Expert  in  camp  life,  am- 
bush, and  scouting,  deeply  interested  in  the  poli- 
tics of  his  country,  his  border  life  having  brought 

102   Kings   3:11.  u2    Kings    13:14. 


122  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

home  to  him  the  difficulties  under  which  it  la- 
bored by  reason  of  the  hostility  of  Syria,  he  was 
a  patriot  from  the  beginning,  and  his  boyhood 
and  young  manhood  were  a  true  preparation  for 
his  prophetic  career. 

The  early  years  after  Elisha's  call  were  spent 
in  preparation  of  another  kind.  The  last  verse 
of  i  Kings,  chap.  19,  tells  us  that  on  being  called 
by  Elijah  he  at  once  went  home  with  him  and 
ministered  to  him,  as  Joshua  to  Moses,  and 
Gehazi  in  later  years  to  Elisha  himself,  being  dis- 
ciple and  companion,  as  well  as  servant,  of  the 
prophet.  They  dwelt  in  the  rocky  seclusion  of 
Mount  Carmel,  where  the  testing  of  Jehovah  and 
Baal  had  taken  place.  We  gather  that  this  was 
Elijah's  usual  retreat,  because  he  is  bidden  "  go 
down  "  to  meet  Ahab  after  the  slaughter  of  Na- 
both ;  12  and  when  Ahab's  son  Ahaziah  sends  for 
him,13  it  is  to  "the  top  of  the  hill;"  Elisha.  we 
are  told,  "  returned  to  Carmel "  after  Elijah's 
translation,14  and  he  was  still  living  there  a  good 
while  later  when  the  Shunamite  went  to  him  after 
her  little  son  died.15 

For  several  years  the  old  prophet  and  his 
young  disciple  apparently  lived  together  in  strict 
retirement.  Once  and  once  only  during  this  time 
Elijah  emerges  from  his  retreat ;  it  is  when  Ahab 

12  1    Kings   21:18.  "2   Kings  2:25. 

13  2   Kings   1:9.  1B2   Kings  4:25. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     123 

robs  Naboth  of  his  inheritance,  and  the  stern 
prophet  announces  to  him  that  for  this  act  of  in- 
justice his  dynasty  shall  not  continue  ( 1  Kings, 
chap.  21). 

Apparently  Benhadad's  defeat  by  Shalmaneser 
at  the  battle  of  Karkar  decided  Ahab  to  break 
the  truce  and  undertake  to  wrest  from  him  the 
frontier  post  of  Ramoth  Gilead,  so  important  all 
through  the  history  of  Israel  ( 1  Kings 
22:2-40,  853  b.  c).  The  interesting  question 
arises  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Ahab  dared  to 
war  against  Benhadad  instead  of  combining  with 
him  against  Assyria.  We  learn  the  answer  from 
the  Black  Obelisk.  It  tells  us  that  after  the  battle 
of  Karkar,  for  three  years,  from  854  to  851, 
Shalmaneser  II  was  occupied  with  an  uprising 
of  the  tribes  on  the  northern  Tigris  and  in  Baby- 
lonia, and  so  Damascus  and  Israel  were  relieved 
from  fear  of  him  and  were  at  liberty  to  fight  each 
other. 

Ahab,  having  been  mortally  wounded  at  Ra- 
moth in  853  b.  c,  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Ahaziah,  a  man  weak  in  body  and  apparently  in 
mind  (1  Kings  22:51).  A  comparison  of 
dates  makes  it  appear  that,  as  has  been  said,  his 
brother  Joram  was  regent  during  Ahaziah's  reign. 
During  this  brief  period  Elijah  again  comes  into 
notice  (2  Kings  1:1-17.).  Ahaziah,  having 
sent  to  Baalzebub,  a  Philistine  god,  to  inquire 


124          HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

whether  he  would  recover  from  an  illness,  re- 
ceives a  stern  message  of  reproof  from  Elijah, 
and  in  consequence  he  attempts  to  take  him  and 
put  him  to  death.  In  all  this  Elijah's  young 
neophyte  Elisha  has  no  part. 

Ahaziah  reigned  less  than  one  year16  (2 
Kings  3:1,  853  b.  a),  and  his  brother 
Jehoram  or  Joram  ascended  the  throne.  Both 
Ahab  and  Joram  were  in  firm  alliance  with  Je- 
hoshaphat  of  Judah,  who  joined  Joram  in  sub- 
duing the  rebellion  of  Mesha,  king  of  Moab. 
Moab  had  been  made  tributary  by  David,  had 
rebelled,  and  had  been  subdued  to  the  northern 
kingdom  by  Omri,  Ahab's  father.  Mesha,  the 
king,  who  was  a  man  of  large  policy,  had  greatly 
increased  the  wealth,  and  probably  the  extent,  of 
his  kingdom,  and  he  naturally  took  the  occasion 
of  Ahaziah's  accession  to  refuse  to  pay  the  enor- 
mous tribute  of  a  hundred  thousand  fleeces  and  a 
hundred  thousand  lambs  which  was  annually  ex- 
acted of  him  (2  Kings  3:4,  5).  The  detailed 
account  on  the  Moabite  Stone  shows  that 
during  the  long  struggle  which  followed  this  re- 
bellion Mesha  made  several  raids  into  Joram's 
territory,  at  one  time  carrying  off  the  "  vessels  of 
Jehovah "  (probably  from  the  sanctuary  at 
Bethel),  and  offering  them  before  Chemosh  his 
God. 

"The  two  years  of   i   Kings  22:  51   are  parts  of  years,  accord- 
ing to   the   invariable   Jewish   reckoning. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     125 

In  the  fifth  year  of  Jehoram's  reign,  849  b.  c, 
Jehoshaphat  of  Judah  died,  and  his  son  Joram 
began  to  reign  (2  Kings  8:16-18).  This 
king  was  both  weak  and  wicked.  He  married 
Athaliah,  the  daughter  of  Jezebel,  Ahab's  wife 
and  Jehoram's  sister,  and  introduced  Baal-wor- 
ship into  Judah.  The  news  that  Judah  had  gone 
over  to  Baal-worship  came  to  the  aged  prophet 
Elijah,  who  had  spent  his  life  in  warring  against 
this  very  sin;  he  roused  himself  to  a  last  protest 
and  sent  a  letter  to  Joram  of  Judah,  threatening 
him  with  a  "  great  stroke  "  in  punishment  —  a 
threat  the  fulfilment  of  which  is  narrated  in  the 
verses  which  immediately  follow,  telling  of  a  raid 
of  Philistines  and  the  desert  tribes,  in  which  even 
Jerusalem  was  entered  and  all  the  king's  wives 
and  children  carried  away,  except  his  youngest 
son  (2  Chron.  21  :  12-15,  16-19). 17 

This  letter  was  the  last  official  act  of  Elijah, 
and  his  translation  probably  followed  soon  after 
(2  Kings  2:1-18).  At  this  time  Elisha  re- 
ceived the  special  gift  of  prophetic  power,  and 
at  once  gave  evidence  of  it  by  healing  the  bitter 
fountain  near  Jericho  (2  Kings  2:  19-22). 

17  The  question  how  Elijah  could  send  this  letter  so  long  after 
he  was  translated  (this  event  having  been  narrated  in  2  Kings, 
chap.  2,  and  Joram's  accession  not  until  2  Kings,  chap.  8)  has 
long  puzzled  commentators.  The  various  reasons  given  by  the 
Sunday-school  writers  on  this  passage  are  little  less  than  insulting 
to  the  intellect  of  any  child.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  excuse 
for  it  before  the  chronology  of  this  book  of  Kings  was  established, 
it  exists  no  longer.  The  simple  answer  to  the  question  is:  Elijah 
was  still   alive. 


126  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

The  translation  of  Elijah  must  have  occurred 
somewhere  between  849  b.  c,  when  Joram  of 
Judah  came  to  the  throne,  and  846  b.  c.  The 
reason  for  fixing  it  before  846  is  this :  The 
Black  Obelisk  shows  that  in  846  Shalmaneser 
again  invaded  Syria  —  this  time  with  even  more 
disastrous  effect  than  before.  Comparing  this 
with  the  dates  of  the  Moabite  Stone,  we  may  be 
pretty  certain  that  Joram  of  Israel  seized  the 
happy  moment  when  his  most  important  foe, 
Benhadad  of  Damascus,  was  thus  occupied,  to 
make  a  general  levy  of  all  Israel  and  to  call  in 
his  ally  of  Judah,  with  Judah's  vassal  Edom,  to 
make  a  supreme  attempt  to  give  to  the  rebellion 
of  Moab  its  deathblow  (2  Kings  3:6-9). 

On  this  occasion  we  gain  the  first  glimpse  of 
the  intense  patriotism  which  animated  Elisha 
through  the  rest  of  his  life  (2  Kings  3:8-27). 
Released  from  his  attendance  upon  Elijah 
by  the  translation  of  the  aged  prophet, 
he  accompanied  the  army  on  the  long  desert 
march,  evidently  as  self-appointed  scout,  for 
which  his  early  training  had  fitted  him,  being 
unknown  to  anyone  in  authority,  until,  in  the 
desperate  straits  of  the  three  kings,  someone  re- 
membered having  seen  him  "  pouring  water  on 
the  hands  of  Elijah  "  —  that  is,  ministering  to 
that  celebrated  prophet.  Being  thus  brought  for- 
ward, Elisha's  border  experience  no  less  than  his 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     127 

prophetic  wisdom  secured  to  the  allied  powers 
the  victory  over  Moab.  It  is  important  to  no- 
tice here  that  the  attitude  of  Elisha  toward  Joram 
of  Israel  was  one  of  distrust  and  dislike.  He 
first  refuses  to  have  anything  to  do  with  him: 
"  Get  thee  to  the  prophets  of  thy  father  and  thy 
mother"  (Baal  prophets)  ;  and  finally  only  con- 
sents to  give  counsel  because  of  his  respect  for 
the  king  of  Judah.  This  is  important  because 
the  clue  to  Elisha' s  whole  subsequent  story  is 
found  in  the  relations  between  him  and  the  reign- 
ing king,  whoever  he  may  be. 

Not  long  after  the  final  conquest  of  Moab, 
which,  as  has  been  seen,  was  a  much  longer 
struggle  than  the  condensed  account  in  chap.  3 
might  suggest,  Elisha  went  to  Damascus,  to  take 
the  next  step  in  fulfilling  the  charge  laid  by 
Jehovah  upon  Elijah  in  Horeb,18  the  anointing 
of  Hazael  to  be  king  over  Syria  (2  Kings 
8:7-15).  It  is  evident  that  Elijah  had  be- 
queathed this  duty  to  his  disciple  Elisha. 

It  will  be  observed  that,  to  put  this  event  in  its 
proper  historic  place,  we  are  obliged  to  pass  over 
all  that  lies  between  chap.  3  and  8:7;  that  is, 
nearly  the  entire  account  of  Elisha's  active  life. 
It  is  a  question  of  dates,  as  we  find  them  by  com- 
paring the  Bible  story  with  the  Black  Obelisk 
and  other  inscriptions.     The  last  defeat  of  the 

18  1   Kings   19:  15,   16. 


128  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

doughty  old  warrior  Ben-hadad  II  at  the  hands 
of  Shalmaneser  took  place,  we  have  seen,  in  846 
b.  c.  Ben-hadad  must  have  been  very  old  by 
this  time,  for  he  began  to  reign  in  Omri's  time. 
Now  in  843,  when  Elisha  came  to  Damascus,  he 
was  in  failing  health.  Elisha's  fame  had  pre- 
ceded him,  as  was  natural  after  his  signal  serv- 
ices in  the  conquest  of  Moab,  and  this  gave  him 
the  opportunity  to  carry  out  his  commission  and 
announce  to  Hazael,  Ben-hadad's  chief  captain, 
that  he  was  to  be  king  of  Syria.  We  have,  how- 
ever, no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  suggested  the 
hideous  treachery  by  which  Hazael  proceeded  to 
fulfil  the  prophecy  19  without  waiting  for  the 
aged  Ben-hadad  to  die  in  the  course  of  nature. 

It  was  in  843  b.  c.  that  the  ferocious  and  cruel 
Hazael  murdered  Ben-hadad  and  usurped  his 
throne,  doubtless  with  the  aid  of  the  army. 
Joram  of  Israel  appears  to  have  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  internal  disturbance  of  Damascus  to 
attempt  to  recover  some  portion  of  Gilead,  calling 
on  his  brother-in-law  of  Judah  to  help  him 
(2  Kings  8 :  28) .  In  consequence  of  this,  Hazael 
threw  predatory  troops  into  the  district  to 
weaken  it  by  those  atrocities  which  the  prophet 
Amos  describes 20  as  "  threshing  Gilead  with 
threshing  instruments  of  iron."     Edom,  Judah's 

»  2  Kings  8:  15.  2°  Am.    1:  3. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     129 

ally,  naturally  seized  this  occasion  to  revolt 
(2  Kings  8:  20-22). 

The  great  object  of  Joram's  desire  was  that 
fortress  of  Ramoth  in  Gilead  which  plays  so  im- 
portant a  part  in  the  history  of  Israel,  the  key  to 
the  country  east  of  the  Jordan,  He  now,  in  the 
early  part  of  842  b,  c,  sat  down  before  it  in  a  reg- 
ular siege,  having  with  him  his  ally  and  nephew, 
Ahaziah  of  Judah,  who  had  succeeded  his  father 
(2  Kings  8:28,  29).  At  Ramoth  Joram  of 
Israel  was  dangerously  wounded,  and,  leaving 
the  conduct  of  the  siege  in  the  hands  of  his  chief 
captain,  Jehu,21  he  returned  to  his  capital  Jezreel, 
whither  Ahaziah  shortly  followed  him.  At  this 
juncture  Elisha  executed  the  second  commission 
inherited  from  his  master  Elijah,  sending  a  mem- 
ber of  the  prophetic  guild  to  Ramoth  Gilead  to 
anoint  Jehu  king  (2  Kings  9:  1-14). 

The  story  of  the  revolt  of  Jehu,  the  murder  of 
Joram  (2  Kings  9:15-37),  and  the  utter 
annihilation  of  Jezebel's  descendants  both  in 
Judah  and  Israel  (with  the  one  exception  of  the 
infant  Joash,  who  kept  alive  the  Davidic  line), 
and  the  extirpation  of  Baal-worship  (2  Kings 
10:1-31),  is  of  present  importance  as  show- 
ing that  the  relations  of  Elisha  to  King  Jehu 
were  as  friendly  as  those  between  him  and  Joram 
had  been  the  reverse  —  a  point  which  is  of  conse- 

21  Cf.   2  Kings  9:  25. 


130  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

quence  in  settling  the  dates  of  the  various  inci- 
dents. Elisha,  with  reason,  had  great  hope  in 
Jehu  at  first,  and  naturally  Jehu  was  grateful  to 
the  prophet  through  whose  influence  had  come 
his  exaltation.  Elisha,  whose  interest  was  in 
the  extirpation  of  Baal-worship,  and  the  revival 
of  true  religion,  as  a  matter  of  course  lent  all  his 
influence  to  Jehu,  at  least  in  the  beginning  of  his 
reign.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  it  be- 
came evident  that  Jehu  in  many  of  his  measures 
went  far  beyond  the  intentions  of  the  prophet, 
committing  such  atrocities  that  Elisha  could  after- 
ward designate  his  son  as  the  son  of  a  mur- 
derer,22 and  that  the  prophet  Hosea  sixty  years 
later  held  him  up  to  reprobation :  "  I  will  avenge 
the  blood  of  Jezreel  upon  the  house  of  Jehu."  23 

Nothing  in  the  Bible  account  explains  to  us 
why  the  warlike  Hazael  did  not  improve  the  op- 
portunity afforded  by  the  disturbed  state  of  Israel, 
consequent  on  Jehu's  revolt,  to  overrun  Samaria 
as  well  as  Gilead ;  but  the  monuments  tell  us  of  a 
bit  of  statecraft  on  the  part  of  Jehu  which  ex- 
plains it.  In  this  very  year,  842  b.  c,  Shalmane- 
ser  II  invaded  Syria,  and  with  such  effect  that 
Hazael  lost  16,000  men,  1,121  war  chariots,  470 
horses,  and  his  camp  equipage,  and  was  left  in 
a  particularly  weak  condition.  The  interesting 
point  in  the  inscription  from  which  we  learn  this 

53  2    Kings    6:32.  "  Hos.    1:4. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     131 

is  that  Shalmaneser  there  mentions  that  he  re- 
ceived tribute  from  Jehu,  son  of  Omri.  This  is 
related,  not  on  the  Black  Obelisk,  but  on  a  frag- 
ment lately  discovered ;  it  is,  however,  confirmed 
by  the  Black  Obelisk,  on  which  is  found  a  sculp- 
tured representation  of  ambassadors  bearing 
gifts  to  the  Assyrian  king,  with  an  inscription: 
"  Tribute  of  Jehu,  son  of  Omri."  It  was  a  nat- 
ural mistake  to  suppose  that  the  rule  of  Israel 
was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Omri  dynasty ;  the 
important  thing  is  that,  as  there  is  no  hint  either 
in  the  Bible  or  on  the  monuments  of  any  invasion 
of  Israel  by  Shalmaneser  II,  it  is  evident  that  this 
tribute  was  not  the  enforced  result  of  conquest 
by  the  Assyrian  king,  but  the  voluntary  act  of  the 
astute  military  commander,  at  this  time  king  of 
Israel  (Jehu),  who  must  thus  have  invoked  the 
intervention  of  Assyria  to  save  him  from  an  in- 
vasion by  Hazael,  which  would  have  been  fatal 
to  him  in  this  first  year  after  he  had  usurped  the 
kingdom. 

Thanks  to  this  policy,  Hazael  was  kept  busy 
by  Assyria.  Thus  the  internal  affairs  of  Israel 
appear  to  have  settled  themselves  promptly,  and 
the  first  years  of  Jehu's  reign  to  have  been 
marked  by  domestic  quiet.  It  was  during  these 
peaceful  years,  while  Elisha  was  still  living  on 
Carmel,  that  occurred  one  of  the  most  beautiful 


132  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

incidents  of  his  life  —  that  of  his  friendship  with 
the  family  of  Shunem  (2  Kings  4:8-37). 

The  reasons  for  placing  this  incident  here  are 
three,  slight  in  themselves,  but  sufficient.  The 
prophet  was  living  on  Mount  Carmel.  It  was 
therefore  either  in  the  reign  of  Joram  or  the  early 
years  of  Jehu;  for  during  Jehu's  later  years 
Elisha  removed  to  Samaria,  apparently  to  be 
nearer  the  king,  who  by  that  time  needed  the  re- 
straining hand  of  the  prophet.  Elisha  was  not 
only  in  friendly  relations  with  the  king  (which 
we  know  he  was  not  with  Joram),24  but  in  a 
position  to  ask  a  favor  of  him  for  his  friend  the 
Shunamite,25  which  Jehu's  indebtedness  to  Elisha 
would  warrant.  The  time  is  evidently  a  time  of 
peace  —  a  child  could  go  alone  into  the  fields,26 
a  woman  could  take  a  solitary  ride  across  the 
country  with  no  fear  of  roving  bands  of  soldiers, 
either  Israelite  or  Syrian.27  No  period  except 
that  between  the  successful  close  of  Jehu's  revolt 
and  Hazael's  more  aggressive  hostilities  meets 
the  case,  and  this  period  appears  to  meet  it  per- 
fectly. 

Three  years  after  the  Jehu  revolution,  in  839 
b.  c,  while  these  events  were  going  on,  Shal- 
maneser  again  invaded  Syria,  and  according  to 
his   own   inscriptions  defeated   Hazael.     It  was 

24  Cf.   3:13,  as  already  pointed  out.  !«4:i8. 

»4:i3-  "4:22. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA    133 

probably,  however,  a  drawn  battle,  for  not  only 
did  Assyria  gain  no  territory,  but  no  further  in- 
vasion of  Syria  took  place  during  the  life  of 
Shalmaneser  II,  though  he  lived  fifteen  years 
longer. 

This  left  Hazael  free  to  begin  a  series  of  opera- 
tions against  Israel,  which  kept  that  country  in 
continued  distress,  and  brought  Elisha  into  prom- 
inence as  the  first  of  patriots  and  the  counselor 
of  the  king  (2  Kings  10:  32-33). 

If  by  the  tribute  he  paid  Assyria  in  842  Jehu 
had  expected  to  secure  permanent  help  from  Shal- 
maneser II,  he  soon  found  himself  mistaken. 
Hazael's  guerrillas  not  only  overran  Gilead,  al- 
ways the  scene  of  frontier  warfare  since  the  days 
of  Omri,  but  even  made  raids  into  Samaria.28 

These  repeated  raids  were  very  disastrous  to 
Israel.  In  the  destruction  of  growing  crops  and 
personal  property  the  country  became  very  poor. 
This  is  precisely  the  condition  that  we  find 
described  in  three  stories  of  Elisha's  life:  that 
of  the  ax-helve  (2  Kings  6:  1-7),  which  in 
their  poverty  the  sons  of  the  prophets  had  bor- 
rowed to  make  them  a  booth  to  live  in,  which 
fell  into  the  water,  and  which  Elisha  made  to 
swim ;  and  the  two  incidents  at  the  close  of  chap. 
4  —  the  pottage  made  from  poison  weeds,  which 
Elisha  rendered  innocuous,  and  the  multiplication 

2sCf.    6:  8,    13,    20. 


134  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

of  the  first-fruits  offered  to  the  prophetic  com- 
munity, making  twenty  barley  loaves  and  some 
ears  of  wheat  suffice  for  a  hundred  people  (2 
Kings  4 :  38-41  and  42-44) .  The  three  incidents 
appear  to  show  an  ever-deepening  poverty  in  the 
order  here  assigned  to  them. 

Poverty  caused  by  hostile  raids  is  almost  sure 
to  develop  the  incipient  tendency  of  the  rich  to 
oppress  the  poor,  which  by  the  time  of  the 
prophet  Amos  had  reached  its  culmination,29  the 
rich  selling  the  righteous  for  silver  and  the  poor 
for  a  pair  of  shoes,  and  covetously  panting  for 
the  very  dust  of  the  earth  on  the  heads  of  the 
poor.  And  here  appears  to  be  the  place  for  the 
story  of  the  prophet's  widow,  whose  son  would 
have  been  sold  for  debt  but  for  the  multiplication 
of  the  oil  in  her  cruse  (2  Kings  4:1-7). 
Meanwhile  the  inroads  of  Hazael  were  becoming 
bolder,  penetrating  to  the  very  heart  of  the  coun- 
try, destroying  crops  and  causing  so  bitter  a 
famine  that  even  the  well-to-do  Shunamite  was 
advised  by  Elisha  to  take  refuge  in  Philistia  (2 
Kings  8:  1,  2). 

Shalmaneser  II  died  in  825  b.  c,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Samsi-Adad.  This  prince  was 
fully  occupied  during  the  first  seven  years  of  his 
reign  in  strengthening  his  rule  over  the  wide 
regions  conquered  by  his  father,  and  during  the 

29  Am.  2:6,   7. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     135 

last  five  by  the  open  rebellion  of  several  of  his 
principal  cities,  including-  Nineveh.  He  never 
went  westward  at  all,  and  Hazael  therefore  had 
it  all  his  own  way  with  Israel.  And  yet  not 
quite  that  (2  Kings  6:  8-13).  Again  and  again, 
when  Hazael  had  plotted  to  lay  an  ambush 
against  Jehu's  troops,30  he  found  that  someone 
had  warned  the  king,  and  the  soldiers  of 
Israel  had  avoided  the  trap.  The  account  of  his 
perplexity,  his  conversation  with  his  servants,  and 
his  discovery  that  his  true  enemy  was  the  old 
prophet  Elisha,31  who  had  long  ago  announced  to 
him  that  he  was  to  be  king  over  Syria,  is  very 
dramatic.  The  relations  between  Elisha  and  the 
king  of  Israel  as  here  shown,  and  the  deep  inter- 
est of  the  prophet  in  public  affairs,  all  point  to 
the  reign  of  Jehu.  The  conclusion  of  hostilities 
between  Syria  and  Israel  was  due  to  Elisha's 
generosity  (2  Kings  6:14-23).  At  the  siege 
of  Dothan,  when  Elisha  showed  his  servant 
Gehazi  the  mountains  full  of  heavenly  chariots 
and  horsemen,  Elisha  by  a  stratagem  led  the 
Syrians  directly  into  the  hands  of  Jehu  in  Sama- 
ria. It  was  the  generosity  with  which,  at 
Elisha's  request,  Jehu  spared  this  band  of  invad- 
ers, that  led  to  peace  between  Israel  and  Syria, 
so  that,  as  we  are  told  in  the  twenty-third  verse, 

30  The  meaning   of  the  word  "  camp  "    in  vs.   8. 

81  Here   again    we   find    Elisha    a   self-appointed   scout. 


136  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

"  the  bands  of  Syria  came  no  more  into  the  land 
of  Israel."  This  must  of  course  be  understood  as 
applying  only  to  the  reign  of  Jehu,  not  to  all  fu- 
ture time. 

It  is  this  statement,  made  in  vs.  23  of  this 
chap.  6,  which,  as  will  be  remembered,  appears 
to  be  directly  contradicted  by  vs.  24,  saying: 
"  And  it  came  to  pass  after  this,  that  Ben-hadad, 
king  of  Syria,  gathered  all  his  host  and  went  up 
and  besieged  Samaria."  We  shall  come  to  the 
siege  of  Samaria  at  a  later  point.  The  next 
passage  in  the  order  of  time  after  the  peace  of 
6:23  comes  in  chap.  13. 

The  death  of  Jehu  had  occurred  during  this 
peace,  and  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Jehoahaz 
(2  Kings  13:  1-2).  Jehoahaz  proved  to  be  a 
bad  king,  but  in  the  quiet  time  of  his  early 
reign  (the  bands  of  the  Syrians  coming  no  more 
into  the  land  of  Israel),  the  Shunamite,  who  had 
remained  away  seven  years,  returned  to  Israel 
and  found  that  her  property  had  been  seized  by 
some  of  those  covetous  rich  who  became  so 
numerous  in  the  time  of  Amos  (2  Kings 
8:  3-6).  With  much  of  his  father  Jehu's  valor, 
Jehoahaz  had  none  of  his  zeal  for  religion,  and 
Elisha  appears  to  have  retired  entirely  from  the 
court;  for  when  the  Shunamite  came  to  beg  for 
the  restoration  of  her  property,  the  king  was  in- 
quiring  of  Gehazi,    Elisha's   servant,   as  to  the 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     137 

great  things  that  Elisha  had  done.  This  was  a 
fortunate  coincidence  for  the  Shunamite,  since 
Gehazi  was  able  to  substantiate  her  claim. 

The  peace  between  Syria  and  Israel  did  not  last 
very  long  beyond  the  death  of  Jehu,  and  the 
reign  of  Jehoahaz  was  full  of  troubles.  With  all 
his  valor,  mentioned  in  the  summing  up  of  his 
career,32  he  was  powerless  to  cope  with  Hazael, 
who  now  resumed  hostilities,  and,  having  swept 
over  and  annexed  the  entire  eastern  country  as 
far  south  as  the  Anion,  not  only  raided  Israel, 
carrying  away  many  captives  —  among  them  a 
little  maid  of  whom  we  shall  soon  hear  (2  Kings 
5:2) — but  made  the  plain  of  Jezreel  itself  the 
base  of  his  operations  against  both  Philistia  and 
Judah.  He  actually  invested  Jerusalem,  and  was 
bought  off  only  by  Joash  of  Judah  giving  him 
the  treasures  of  his  own  palace  and  of  the  temple 
(2  Kings  12 :  17,  18). 

All  this  must  have  occurred  in  the  early  years 
of  Jehoahaz,  because  four  years  after  his  acces- 
sion, in  811  b.  c,  Adad-nirari  III  came  to  the 
throne  of  Assyria  and  began  that  aggressive 
movement  which  thenceforth  hardly  ceased  until 
the  capture  of  Israel  eighty-nine  years  later.  In 
the  records,  Adad-nirari  III  boasts  of  conquering 
Tyre,  Sidon,  Omri-Land  (Israel),  Edom,  and 
Philistia.     Before  his  aggressions  have  reached 

s-  2  Kings   13:8. 


138  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

this  point  we  may  place  the  beautiful  story  of 
Naaman  (2  Kings  5:  1-27),  who  owed  his  cure 
from  leprosy  to  the  little  captive  maid  of  Israel. 
The  story  in  Kings  is  put  early  in  Elisha's  life, 
but  it  belongs  here  by  various  tokens.  Naaman 
was  chief  captain  of  the  king  of  Syria;  but 
he  cannot  have  been  the  chief  captain  of  Ben- 
hadad  II,  for  Hazael  was  that.  He  must  have 
been  Hazael's  chief  captain.  The  "  deliverance  " 
which  the  Bible  tells  us  that  he  accomplished  for 
Syria  must  have  occurred  before  his  leprosy,  and 
there  is  no  good  reason  to  question  that  he  was 
the  general  in  that  drawn  battle  of  839  by  which, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  more  than  twenty  years 
of  amnesty  from  Assyrian  invasion  had  been 
secured  to  Syria.  The  king  to  whom  Naaman 
was  sent  cannot  have  been  Jehu,  because,  with  all 
his  victories  over  Jehu,  Hazael  was  never  on 
such  terms  with  him  as  to  be  in  a  position  to  send 
to  him  such  peremptory  orders,  especially  during 
the  last  years  of  his  reign,  when,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  peace  between  them  was  the  result,  not  of 
Hazael's  prowess,  but  of  Jehu's  generosity.33 
Only  one  in  the  beaten  condition  of  Jehoahaz  34 
could  have  been  so  terrified  by  the  idea  that  the 
Syrian  king  sought  a  quarrel  with  him.35  Be- 
sides this,  Jehu  would  have  known  at  once  that 
Elisha  was  the  prophet  referred  to,  whereas  we 

83  6 120-23.  "13:  3-7.  86S:7. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     139 

have  just  seen  how  little  Jehoahaz  knew  of 
Elisha.  Moreover,  the  leprosy  of  Gehazi,  which 
resulted  from  this  incident,  could  hardly  have 
occurred  before  the  reign  of  Jehoahaz,  because, 
if  Gehazi  had  been  a  leper,  he  could  hardly  have 
been  talking  with  King  Jehoahaz  when  the  Shu- 
namite  woman  came  in.30 

Hazael's  reign  had  extended  from  843  or  844 
b.  c,  to  nearly  the  close  of  the  century,  and  the 
last  we  hear  of  him  is  his  sending  Naaman  to 
Israel,  except  that  in  a  general  way  he  oppressed 
Israel  all  his  life.37  The  next  event  in  the  his- 
tory is  the  siege  of  Samaria  (2  Kings  6:24  — 
7:  20).  It  occurred  under  Hazael's  son  Ben- 
hadacl  III,38  but  during  the  reign  of  Jehoahaz, 
which  closed  in  799  b.  c.  Jehoahaz,  as  we  know, 
had  already  lost  several  cities  to  Syria  during 
Hazael's  reign.  The  loss  of  Samaria  would  have 
been  the  destruction  of  Israel.  The  army  was 
demoralized  to  a  marvelous  degree ;  2  Kings  13:7 
tells  us  that  Jehoahaz  had  only  fifty  horsemen  and 
ten  chariots  and  10,000  infantry  —  a  striking  con- 
trast to  the  2,000  chariots  Ahab  had  been  able  to 
lend  to  the  alliance  with  the  second  Ben-hadad. 
We  are  concerned  with  the  siege  of  Samaria 
only  as  showing  the  unfriendly  relations  between 
the  king  and   Elisha,    who,   however,   was   still 

M2  Kings  8:4.  "13:22.  "Vs.   24. 


140  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

living  in  Samaria,39  whither  he  had  removed  in 
Jehu's  time.  They  are  indeed  so  unfriendly  that 
many  scholars  still  think  this  siege  must  have 
taken  place  under  Joram,  the  son  of  Ahab.  But, 
bad  as  things  were  at  that  time,  they  were  in 
nothing  like  the  condition  here  described,  nor 
does  anything  in  Joram's  time  either  in  the  Bible 
or  in  the  monuments  go  to  explain  the  remark- 
able deliverance  by  which  this  siege  was 
raised.  But  the  inscriptions  of  Adad-Nirari 
III  appear  to  explain  it.  We  are  told  in  7:6 
that  in  the  last  extremity,  when  famine  made 
surrender  seem  imminently  necessary,  the  Syrians 
heard  a  report  that  a  body  of  horsemen  and 
chariots  and  a  great  host  were  coming  against 
them,  and  were  so  terrified  by  it  that  they  fled, 
leaving  all  their  camp  and  baggage  behind.  Now, 
in  chap.  13,  which  sums  up  the  oppressions  of 
Syria  under  Jehoahaz,  we  are  told  40  that  the 
Lord  gave  Israel  a  savior,  who  was  so  efficient 
in  restoring  peace  that  the  warlike  footing  which 
had  been  that  of  Israel  during  a  long  past  was 
entirely  done  away  with.  Who  that  savior  was 
has  been  questioned  for  two  thousand  years.  The 
best  answer  that  could  be  found  was  Jeroboam  II 
(the  answer  still  given  by  many  very  competent 
authorities,  and  very  clearly  the  opinion  of  the 
writer    of    this    history.41     But    this    answer    is 

"6:  32.  «  13:  5.  41  14:  26,    27. 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA     141 

hardly  satisfactory,  as  the  reign  of  Joash  (six- 
teen years)  comes  between  Jehoahaz  and  this 
king.  The  monuments  appear  to  give  a  better 
suggestion  as  to  the  identity  of  this  savior.  In 
806  B.C.,  and  again  in  803,  and  finally  in  799, 
Adad-nirari  III  of  Assyria  came  up  against  Syria, 
and  of  all  his  many  conquests  it  was  his  proudest 
boast  that  at  this  time  he  utterly  subdued  Damas- 
cus. It  was  the  intelligence  of  one  of  these  im- 
portant invasions  that  made  the  forces  of  Ben- 
hadad  III  so  precipitately  raise  the  siege  of 
Samaria. 

In  799  Jehoahaz  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Joash  (2  Kings  13:10).  Evidently  the  mem- 
ory of  Elisha's  intervention  in  the  siege  of 
Samaria  was  yet  fresh,  for  we  find  Joash  regard- 
ing him  with  reverent  admiration.  But  Elisha 
was  now  very  old.  He  had  been  laboring  for 
Israel  nearly  sixty  years,  and  the  time  of  his 
death  had  come  (2  Kings  13:14-19).  The 
last  incident  in  his  story  is  the  visit  of  King 
Joash,  coming  to  see  him  on  his  death-bed,  and 
crying  in  utter  despair :  "  My  father,  my  father, 
the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof ! " 
Elisha's  patriotism  was  burning  as  brightly  in 
his  death  as  ever  in  his  life:  his  one  thought  in 
this  interview  was  for  the  victory  of  Israel  over 
their  age-long  foe.  Syria  had  been  put  to  tribute 
by  Assyria,  but  its  power  was  not  yet  broken ;  it 


142  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

needed  but  a  little  perseverance  on  the  part  of 
Joash  to  defeat  it  utterly.  So  far,  indeed,  was  it 
weakened  that  the  Moabites,  for  a  time  under  the 
Syrian  yoke,  now  undertook  raids  on  their  own 
account  (2  Kings  13:20).  And  so  far  as 
the  energy  of  Joash  carried  him  he  was  vic- 
torious. Three  times  he  conquered  Ben-hadad 
and  recovered  the  cities  his  father  had  lost. 
There  his  operations  ceased  (2  Kings  13:25). 
In  797  Assyria  came  once  more  and  so  completed 
the  conquest  of  Syria  that  it  never  again  offered 
hostilities  to  Israel. 

V 

Thus  much  had  Elisha  accomplished  by  sixty 
years  of  arduous  service.  He  had  kept  hope  and 
energy  alive  under  most  disastrous  circumstances, 
until  the  tide  of  Israel's  fortune's  turned  (2  Kings 
14 :  25-28) .  After  the  prosperous  reign  of  Joash, 
his  son  Jeroboam  II  carried  the  kingdom  to  a 
state  of  power  and  prestige  such  as  it  had  hardly 
known  even  in  Solomon's  day.  But  the  old 
prophet's  vision  was  clear  after  all.  Joash  blun- 
dered sadly  in  not  himself  completing  the  con- 
quest of  Syria  instead  of  letting  it  fall  into  the 
hands  of  Assyria.  So  long  as  Syria  stood  be- 
tween Samaria  and  the  all-encroaching  world- 
power  Assyria,  Israel's  independence  was  secure, 
but  with  Syria  in  the  possession  of  the  ruler  of 


EASTERN  LIGHT  ON  STORY  OF  ELISHA      143 

Nineveh,  the  captivity  of  Israel  was  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time. 

It  is  a  very  common  opinion  that  Elisha  was 
greatly  inferior  to  Elijah.  Those  who  care  little 
for  miracles  see  in  his  story  only  a  sort  of  fairy- 
tale, good  to  tell  to  children,  but  unworthy  the 
attention  of  men.  Elijah  was  so  ardent,  so  sin- 
gle-hearted in  his  opposition  to  Baal-worship; 
"  this  one  thing  I  do  "  was  so  evidently  his  motto, 
that  he  stands  very  high  among  reformers,  though 
not  a  more  lovable  character  than  some  other 
reformers.  Elisha  was  a  man  of  entirely  differ- 
ent stamp,  a  very  charming  character,  warm- 
hearted, genial,  full  of  tact,  delighting  in  the  com- 
panionship of  woman,  affectionate,  grateful.  He 
was  all  this,  but  he  was  far  more  than  this.  True 
patriot,  far-seeing  statesman,  loyal  subject,  his 
career  was  one  of  incalculable  benefit  to  his  coun- 
try. He  was  the  first  patriot  —  I  had  almost  said 
Christian  —  the  world  knows  of ;  at  least  he 
was  the  first  whose  patriotism  was  his  religion 
and  his  religion  patriotism.  Of  all  Old  Testament 
characters  his  life  is  a  lesson  for  the  present  day, 
and  I  cannot  think  that  study  merely  a  bit  of 
ingenious  problem-working  which  makes  so  clear 
the  sequence  of  his  deeds  as  to  show  their  con- 
nection with  the  great  world-movement  of  his 
time. 


CHAPTER  VI 
LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL 


The  holiest  thing  we  know  is  love.  The  re- 
lation between  God  and  man  is  a  love-relation. 
It  is  because  of  love  that  the  law  of  the  universe 
is  the  law  of  vicarious  sacrifice  —  the  Lamb  slain 
from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world ;  all 
things  perpetually  giving  themselves  that  a  better 
thing  may  be.  Love  is  the  foundation  of  the 
righteousness  of  God,  or,  rather,  love  is  its  very 
heart :  in  wrath  he  remembers  mercy  because  his 
wrath  is  mercy,  since  he  is  love. 

But  how  shall  God  reveal  himself  to  man  as 
love?  The  human  mind  and  heart,  though  ex- 
panded to  their  utmost  capacity  by  an  answering 
love,  cannot  compass  the  knowledge  of  that 
which  needed  a  universe  for  its  satisfaction  and 
an  eternal  sacrifice  for  its  expression.  Only  in 
part  can  such  a  revelation  be  given  to  man,  and 
also  only  in  parts.  If  because  of  our  finite  under- 
standing it  was  necessary  that  God  should  at 
divers  times  and  in  divers  manners  give  the  reve- 
lation of  himself  to  man  in  the  various  aspects 

144 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  145 

of  his  being  and  will,  inconceivably  more  neces- 
sary is  it  that  this  revelation  of  that  which  epito- 
mizes them  all  —  love  —  should  be  given  us,  part 
by  part,  aspect  by  aspect ;  that,  viewing  it  now  on 
this  side,  now  on  that,  now  in  one  relation,  now 
in  another,  we  may  finally  come  to  some  appre- 
hension of  the  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and 
height  of  the  love  of  God  which  passeth  knowl- 
edge. 

Therefore  the  Old  Testament  is  full  of  love- 
stories;  and  the  stories  are  of  all  kinds  —  not 
only  of  lover  and  lover,  husband  and  wife,  but 
of  father  and  daughter,  mother  and  son,  brother 
and  sister,  friend  and  friend.  In  all  these  rela- 
tions love  finds  in  the  Old  Testament  of  all  litera- 
ture its  best  illustration,  because  of  all  literature 
it  is  in  the  Old  Testament  simplest  and  least 
self-conscious.  When  we  read  its  books  with 
this  idea  in  mind,  we  find  love  flashing  out  from 
many  a  page,  and  softly  lambent  in  many  a  char- 
acter, where  we  have  hardly  been  aware  of  it  be- 
fore. Fierce  or  gentle,  cruel  or  kind,  selfish  or 
devoted,  all  the  men  and  women  of  Israel  are 
lovers.  Sometimes  their  love  is  so  pure  and 
flawless  as  to  seem  almost  worthy  to  be  a  type  of 
the  divine  reality;  sometimes  it  is  but  "broken 
lights  "  of  that  reality,  yet  still  the  stories  of  these 
loves  suggest,  and  in  their  own  way  interpret, 
that  perfect  love  which  is  "  more  than  they." 


146         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

We  come  to  the  study  of  the  love-stories  of 
the  Bible  in  a  period,  and  from  the  midst  of  an 
environment,  most  unsympathetic  to  such  a  study. 
There  are  very  few  of  us  who  have  wholly  es- 
caped the  influence,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  erotic 
novel,  and  on  the  other,  of  the  materialistic 
psychology  and  anthropology  of  our  time.  There 
cannot  but  be  an  element  of  grave  danger  in  the 
scientific  study  of  human  relationships.  How- 
ever important  and  however  seriously  made,  it 
tends  to  deaden  the  spiritual  sense.  The  erotic 
novel  tends  to  brutalize  it;  and  we  need  to  be 
careful  in  either  line  of  reading  lest  we  injure  the 
idealizing  faculty  which  is  the  very  nerve  of  the 
soul. 

It  is  because  this  faculty  is  already  more  or 
less  weak  that  we  do  not  feel  at  once  the  beauty 
of  the  Bible  love-stories,  so  sane  and  simple  and 
safe,  making  no  appeal  to  our  self-consciousness. 
It  takes  a  little  time,  and  perhaps  not  a  little 
effort,  for  us  to  get  into  a  frame  of  mind  —  or 
of  heart  —  where  we  can  respond  to  their  normal 
and  natural  appeal.  But  when  the  scientific 
study  of  ancient  institutions  and  primitive  peoples 
has  made  us  feel  as  if  the  original  relations  of 
father  and  daughter,  husband  and  wife,  had  been 
only  barter  and  sale,  pursuit  and  capture,  tyranny 
and  slavery ;  or  when  the  psychological  novel  has 
shown  us  the  divine  law  of  love  changed  into  the 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  147 

cruel  despotism  of  desire,  and  conscience  a  blind 
and  bewildered  guide,  it  is  clarifying  and  refresh- 
ing to  turn  to  these  pages,  and  read  how,  in  the 
early  days  of  Hebrew  story,  Rebekah  went  of  her 
own  free  will  to  the  unseen  husband  beyond  the 
desert  and   the   river;   how   Jacob  served  seven 
years  for  Rachel,  and  it  seemed  but  a  few  days 
for  the  love  he  bore  her ;  how  Elkanah  comforted 
his  childless  wife  with  the  tender  question :  "  Am 
not  I  better  to  thee  than  ten  sons?"  how  the 
young  heathen  girl  was  fain  to  leave  country  and 
father's  house  for  love  of  the  woman  whom  her 
dead  husband  had  called  mother;  how  Jonathan, 
the  single-hearted,  kept  faith  with  father  and  with 
friend;  how  the  fierce  warrior  Jephthah,  tender 
only  to  his  idolized  daughter,  yet  shrank  not  from 
doing  to  her  according  to  his  vow,  obeying  with 
true  instinct,  though  with  benighted  heart,  that 
high  law  which  bids  man  give  the  best  he  has  to 
the  best  he  knows.     And  there  is  still  no  story  of 
today,  however  passionately  true,  no  poem  of  our 
own  time,  however  noble  its  utterance  of  love,  no 
Sonnet   from  the   Portuguese,   no   Guinevere  or 
Maud,  that  so  meets  the  imperative  demand  of 
the  heart  for  self-expression  as  that  "  oldest  and 
sweetest  love-song  of  the  East,"  the  "  Song  of 
all  Songs,  which  is  of  Solomon ;  "  where  the  fresh 
breezes  of  the  vineyard  blow  through  halls  of 
oriental   splendor;  where  the   birds   are   always 


148  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

singing  and  the  time  is  always  spring,  while  a 
love  strong  as  death  is  battling  with  fierce  temp- 
tation and  wins  victory  at  last  without  a  scar. 

These  love-stories  of  Israel,  we  remember,  were 
lived  —  or  dreamed  —  in  a  period  of  the  world's 
civilization  when  the  relations  of  men  and  women 
were  almost  everywhere  relations  of  tyranny  and 
sensuality;  their  scene  is  that  Orient  where  in 
all  ages  love  has  been  a  thing  of  voluptuous  self- 
gratification.  These  love-stories  are  from  the 
East  and  from  an  early  literary  period ;  but  in 
them  love  is  not  a  thing  of  the  senses,  nor  is  the 
relation  between  husband  and  wife  a  property- 
relation.  The  love  they  reveal  is  a  true  type, 
however  inadequate,  of  the  love  of  God ;  and  the 
relation  of  husband  and  wife  is  so  truly  a  love- 
relation  that  prophets  could  bring  messages  of 
reproof  for  Israel's  wandering  from  God  in  fig- 
ures taken  from  the  transgression  of  the  marriage 
vow,  and  picture  the  divine  favor  in  figures 
drawn  from  wedded  love: 

Thy    Maker   is   thine   husband,   Jehovah   of   Hosts   is   his 
name.1 

II 

Love-stories  so  pure  and  natural  as  these  Bible 
love-stories  are  true  idylls.  There  is  always  the 
free  breath  of  the  open  air,  the  underlying  con- 
sciousness of  hills  and  valleys,  or  of  wide  desert 

1  Isa.    54:  5. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  149 

sweeps  and  of  the  overarching  sky.  The  tinkling 
of  sheep-bells  blends  with  the  song  of  the  reapers 
and  the  measured  footfall  of  the  vintage  dance. 
There  is  never  any  introspection,  and  the  stories 
are  without  the  slightest  shade  of  psychological 
analysis ;  but  the  feeling  is  intense.  There  is  no 
lack  of  passion  in  the  love-stories  of  the  Bible, 
though  from  its  very  purity  the  flame  is  often 
invisible.  To  the  student  or  the  maker  of  lit- 
erature these  love-stories  are  particularly  worthy 
of  study ;  in  how  few  words  is  the  story  told,  and 
yet  how  distinctly  the  characters  stand  out,  each 
as  completely  unlike  the  other  as  in  the  most 
carefully  analyzed  work  of  modern  fiction. 

And  if  no  two  lovers  are  alike  in  all  these 
Bible  stories,  still  less  is  the  love  they  represent 
of  any  conventional  type.  If  the  inspired  authors 
had  set  themselves  to  show  the  manifold  phases 
of  love,  they  could  not  have  done  it  with  more 
consummate  art.  Isaac's  love  for  Rebekah  was 
the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  loneliness  of  the 
idolized  son,  left  desolate  by  the  death  of  the 
doting  mother  who  had  made  life  easy  and  lovely 
for  him ;  and  the  capable,  energetic,  not  over- 
emotional  Rebekah  was  just  the  sort  of  wife 
such  a  man  would  like  best.  But  Jacob  and 
Rachel  were  lovers  of  another  sort.  In  them  the 
intense  devotion  of  youth  was  strengthened  by 
long  trial  and  nourished  by  bitter  disappointment. 


150  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

The  love  of  David  and  Michal  was  the  true  boy- 
and-girl  love,  artless,  spontaneous,  not  robust 
enough  to  bear  the  test  of  untoward  circum- 
stances, but  beautiful  while  it  lasted.  When, 
after  years  of  rude  experiences,  David  met  the 
wise,  self-poised,  and  tactful  Abigail,  matured 
but  not  embittered  by  the  cruel  lot  of  being 
wedded  to  a  fool,  the  story  is  of  that  deep  affec- 
tion which  without  romance  yet  makes  very  much 
of  the  dignity  and  worth  of  married  life.  And 
then  there  is  the  love  of  Shelomith,  the  peasant 
girl  of  the  Song  of  Songs  —  the  typical  woman's 
love;  beginning,  like  Michal' s,  in  the  artless  un- 
consciousness of  youth,  and  beautiful  with  the  ex- 
uberance of  girlish  spirits,  but,  unlike  hers,  gain- 
ing strength  by  trial,  and  coming  at  last  to  self- 
consciousness  through  a  fiery  ordeal  that  would 
have  shriveled  to  nothingness  a  less  genuine  pas- 
sion. It  is  marvelous  art  that  can  bring  out  all 
these  fine  shades  of  difference,  not  only  without 
analysis,  but  almost  without  conversation,  which 
is  only  a  more  obvious  method  of  analysis.  A 
two-volume  novel  of  the  realistic  school  is  vague 
and  sketchy  in  comparison  with  these.  With  all 
Mrs.  Ward's  power,  we  hardly  know  Marcella 
as  we  know  Rachel,  and  Ruth  is  a  real  person 
where  Diana  of  the  Crossways  is  only  a  type. 

Instead    of   analysis,    the    love-stories    of    the 
Bible  give  us  presentation ;  instead  of  psychology, 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  151 

the  idyll  —  short,  intense,  with  no  self-conscious- 
ness, but  with  nature-consciousness  always  there. 
For  example,  the  story  of  Isaac  and  Rebekah ;  2 
it  is  no  less  evidently  a  love-story  though  the  lover 
himself  hardly  appears  upon  the  scene.  It  is 
natural  enough  that  the  marriage  is  arranged  by 
an  intermediary;  that  is  what  we  find  in  most 
eastern  stories;  the  difference  is  that  in  this  case 
the  matchmaker's  whole  heart  is  in  his  business 
—  it  is  not  a  mere  professional  matter.  The 
match-maker  is  the  trusted  slave,  Eliezer  of  Da- 
mascus, born  in  Abraham's  house,  and  in  his 
youth  the  presumptive  heir  of  Abraham's  wealth ; 
and  the  keynote  of  love  is  struck  at  once  when  a 
man  in  his  position  feels  it  almost  as  much  a  mat- 
ter of  importance  as  does  the  father  that  the  son 
of  promise  shall  be  suitably  mated. 

The  idyllic  features  are  present  from  first  to 
last;  in  hardly  any  work  of  modern  times  is  the 
nature-consciousness  so  strong.  It  makes  a  part 
of  the  tenderness  that  enhaloes  the  scene  of  the 
solemn  oath,  where  Eliezer  swears  to  seek  for  his 
master's  son  a  wife  of  that  Mesopotamian  kindred 
whence  long  ago  Abraham  had  come  out.  It 
has  its  share  in  the  anxious  affection  which  bur- 
dens the  bondsman's  heart  during  the  long  jour- 
ney eastward  from  the  home  at  Hebron,  where  in 
the  cave  of  the  field  that  mother  lies  buried  to 

3  Gen.,   chap.    24. 


152  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

whom  the  son  Isaac  was  so  dear!  It  mingles 
with  the  almost  mother-love  that  fills  the  heart 
of  the  faithful  slave  as  he  leads  his  caravan,  laden 
with  gifts  for  the  unknown  bride,  along  the  high 
ridges  of  Mount  Judah,  past  the  fortress  and 
shrine  of  Salem  and  under  the  ladder-like  rocks 
of  Bethel,  beyond  Shechem  and  the  oaks  of 
Moreh,  through  the  green  valley  of  Jezreel  and 
along  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  beneath  the  shadow 
of  Tabor's  dome  and  beside  Chinneroth's  blue  ex- 
panse, under  Hermon's  snowy  height  and  across 
the  pathless  desert,  until  at  last  it  finds  words  in 
the  prayer  offered  beside  the  well  of  Harran. 

Then  comes  a  scene  of  pure  idyll.  The  group 
of  camels  kneeling  by  the  well ;  the  man  bent  for- 
ward in  the  eastern  attitude  of  prayer;  the  girl 
coming  over  the  rolling  upland  with  her  pitcher 
on  her  shoulder  —  it  is  the  poetry  of  all  the  ages, 
and  one  may  see  it  today  in  any  eastern  village. 
Very  eastern  are  the  methods  of  Eliezer's  ap- 
proach to  the  young  girl's  heart.  Even  the 
prayer  in  which  he  arranges  for  his  own  guidance 
from  heaven  by  a  sign  has  in  it  something  of 
eastern  diplomacy,  and  still  more  so  the  produc- 
tion of  gifts  at  the  opportune  moment  —  the 
bracelets  and  the  nose-ring  brought  out  precisely 
when  he  had  said  enough  to  excite,  without  in 
the  least  gratifying,  Rebekah's  girlish  curiosity  as 
to  the  object  of  his  long  journey.     It  is  diplo- 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  1 53 

macy  not  less  than  loyalty  to  his  master  that 
makes  him  refuse  to  eat  until  he  has  told  his  er- 
rand. That  was  just  the  way  to  capture  the  heart 
of  the  fearless  Mesopotamian  girl,  with  her 
readiness  to  take  the  initiative. 

All  this  is  eastern,  but  it  is  the  East,  not  of 
Persia  or  Arabia,  but  of  Israel.  Spirited  and 
stout-hearted  as  Rebekah  was,  there  was  more 
in  her  quick  decision,  "  I  will  go,"  than  mere 
independence.  She  knew  the  story  of  how  Ab- 
raham had  left  this  home  in  Harran  in  answer  to 
a  mysterious  call.  She  must  have  known  some- 
thing of  the  promise  on  which  he  built  his  hope. 
It  was  the  choice  of  a  high  destiny  that  Rebekah 
made  when  she  went  away  with  Eliezer  to  be 
Isaac's  wife  and  take  her  place  in  the  line  of 
blessing  to  the  world.  And  still  she  was  a  gen- 
uine girl  through  it  all ;  as  we  see  when  the  day 
came  at  last  that  she  lifted  up  her  eyes  and  saw 
Isaac  walking  slowly  toward  her  across  the  field, 
plunged  in  "  mournful  meditation,"  thinking  of 
the  dead  mother  who  had  left  such  a  void  in  his 
life,  looking  out,  too,  with  an  expectation  half 
timorous,  half  glad,  for  the  wife  who  was  to 
comfort  him  for  his  mother's  loss.  All  the  girl- 
ish instinct  spoke  in  Rebekah's  quick  veiling  of 
her  face;  but  when  she  dismounted  from  her 
camel,  and  waited  until  Isaac  should  come  and 
lead  her  into  his  dead  mother's  tent,  it  was  with 


154  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  dignity  of  the  woman  who  submits  to  love 
because  it  is  her  free  choice.  And  so  the  little 
idyll  closes  with  a  glimpse  of  that  oldest  and  not 
least  worthy  type  of  wifely  love  —  the  love  that 
is  half  maternal,  half  protecting  and  consoling  — 
in  the  brooding  warmth  of  which  Isaac  was  com- 
forted for  his  mother's  death. 

Jacob's  love-story  is  very  different  from  that 
of  his  father  Isaac.3  Not  peaceful  and  comfort- 
ing, but  stormy  and  intense,  is  the  idyll  of  his 
life.  No  intermediary  seeks  out  a  bride  for  him, 
traveling  on  camels  and  laden  with  gifts.  Alone 
and  on  foot  he  makes  the  same  journey  that 
Eliezer  had  taken  long  before;  his  heart,  like 
Eliezer's,  is  anxious,  but  it  is  not  the  anxiety  of 
love,  but  of  a  disturbed  conscience  —  for  he  is 
seeking,  not  a  bride,  but  a  refuge  from  the  wrath 
of  an  offended  brother.  Love  visits  him  a  sweet, 
unbidden  guest,  when  Rachel  comes  leading  her 
father's  flocks  to  water,  over  the  field  which  that 
other  girl,  her  own  father's  sister,  had  crossed  a 
generation  back,  to  meet  a  more  prosperous,  but 
not  a  more  blissful,  fate. 

The  course  of  their  love  ran  smooth  enough  at 
first.  The  penniless  youth  must  indeed  buy  his 
wife  with  seven  years  of  labor,  but  Rachel  was 
there,  and  every  day  was  golden  with  the  glory  of 
youthful  love.     Three  times  was  that  love  victo- 

s  Gen.   28:  10  —  35:  20. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  155 

rious  —  over  cruel  deceit,  over  unjust  treatment, 
and  over  the  blighting  disappointment  of  child- 
lessness —  more  severe  a  test  than  any  but  an 
oriental  knows.  Jacob's  devotion  never  trans- 
ferred itself  from  Rachel  to  Leah.  Though 
Leah  was  a  bright  and  patient  woman,  and  the 
mother  of  six  sons,  the  love  of  Jacob  for  Rachel 
is  always  in  evidence.  When  danger  threatened 
from  Esau's  wrath,  on  the  homeward  journey 
from  Mesopotamia,  and  Jacob  with  deep  anxiety 
made  his  preparations  to  meet  him,  Rachel  and 
her  son  were  put  last,  in  the  place  of  greatest 
security.  Joseph,  Rachel's  late-born  son,  was 
Jacob's  best-beloved  because  his  mother  was  the 
beloved  of  his  youth ;  and  Benjamin,  the  child 
for  whom  she  gave  her  life,  was  entwined  with 
his  father's  very  heart-strings.  There  is  all  the 
pathos  of  a  deathless  grief  in  the  story  how  it 
"  came  to  pass  as  her  soul  was  in  departing  ( for 
she  died)  that  she  called  him  '  the  son  of  my  sor- 
row ; '  but  his  father  called  him  '  the  son  of  the 
right  hand.'  " 

No  such  stormy  love  was  that  of  Ruth  —  her 
story  is  rather  pastoral  than  idyllic,  so  sweet  and 
peaceful  and  outward  is  it  all.4  Indeed,  it  is  not 
the  love  between  Ruth  and  Boaz  which  is  the  sub- 
ject of  the  lovely  story,  still  less  the  love  of  the 
young   Moabitish   girl   for  the   boy-luisband   so 

*  Ruth,   passim. 


156  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

early  taken  from  her.  The  story  of  Ruth  is  the 
seldom-told  story  of  the  love  and  loyalty  of  two 
women.  That  it  should  have  found  a  place  in 
the  Bible  is  very  impressive  when  we  consider 
how  small  account  would  be  made  of  the  friend- 
ship of  women  among  any  eastern  people  except 
Israel,  at  any  period  of  time;  and  it  is  still  more 
impressive  because  the  relationship  between  these 
women  —  that  of  mother-in-law  and  daughter- 
in-law  —  here  so  dignified  and  pathetic  and  mu- 
tually protective,  is  the  relationship  that  at  all 
times  and  in  all  countries  has  been  held  up  for 
derision,  suspicion,  or  scorn. 

The  story  of  Ruth  was  evidently  written  by 
one  who  delighted  in  folklore  and  desired  to  pre- 
serve a  memory  of  the  old  customs  —  the  levirate 
marriage,  the  plucking  off  the  shoe,  the  important 
functions  of  the  elders  sitting  in  the  gate,  the 
primitive  ways  of  wooing.  The  stratagem  of 
Naomi  to  secure  a  wealthy  and  influential  hus- 
band for  Ruth  was  very  daring,  but  we  may  be 
sure  that  some  such  custom  prevailed  at  that  time. 
It  argues  an  entire  lack  of  appreciation  of  the 
character,  not  only  of  Naomi,  but  of  Ruth,  to 
suppose,  as  many  commentators  have  done,  that 
Naomi's  purpose  in  sending  Ruth  to  lie  at  the 
feet  of  Boaz,  as  he  slept  upon  the  threshing-floor 
after  the  joyous  festival  of  the  harvest  home,  was 
so  to  compromise  him  that,  being  an  honorable 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  I$7 

man,  he  would  feel  bound  to  offer  marriage  to 
the  unprotected  girl.  Such  an  explanation  of  a 
puzzling  situation  is  far  too  modern  to  be  satis- 
factory, even  if  what  we  knew  of  Ruth  did  not 
make  it  unthinkable.  We  must  put  ourselves  far 
away  from  our  late  western  civilization  to  the 
distant  East  and  the  long  past,  and,  realizing 
Naomi's  strong  love  for  Ruth,  and  the  imprac- 
ticability of  single  life  for  a  young  woman  in 
those  turbulent  "  clays  when  the  judges  ruled,"  5 
find  it  natural  that  she  should  take  advantage 
of  a  local  custom  to  bring  home  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  prominent  citizen,  who  was  her  kins- 
man, and  who  already  recognized  the  virtues  of 
Ruth,  the  fact  of  the  young  widow's  unprotected 
condition. 

It  was  on  this  same  Mount  Judah  that  another 
love-story  occurred,  of  which  the  hero  was  the 
most  brave,  gallant,  and  fiery  of  all  the  sons  of 
Israel,  and  the  heroine  the  most  dignified,  wise, 
and  tactful  of  his  daughters.6  The  story  of  how 
the  Hebrew  Robin  Hood,  the  outlaw  David,  won 
his  maid  Marian,  is  highly  interesting  for  the 
picture  it  gives  of  the  manners  of  the  time;  but 
chiefly  and  especially  for  the  noble  type  of  woman- 
hood it  portrays.  Abigail,  wife  of  "the  fool," 
Nabal,  is  such  a  fearless,  self-possessed,  gracious 
woman  as  is  not  often  met.     Not  in  all  the  Old 

B  Ruth    1:1.  '  1    Sam.,  chap.   25. 


158  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Testament,  hardly  in  all  eastern  literature,  is  there 
another  recorded  speech  of  woman  so  dignified, 
appropriate,  and  winning  as  the  words  Abigail 
addressed  to  David  to  restrain  him  from  aveng- 
ing himself  with  his  own  hand.  There  is  all  the 
loyalty  of  the  wife  who,  though  mated  with  a 
clown,  is  yet  true  to  him.  "  Upon  me,  my  Lord, 
upon  me  be  the  iniquity,  for  my  husband  is  not 
accountable,  being  Nabal  —  a  fool."  There  is  all 
the  fearlessness  of  the  woman  who,  though  in 
danger,  is  mistress  of  the  situation,  able  to  remind 
the  freebooting  chieftain  how  unworthy  of  him 
it  would  be  to  avenge  himself  with  his  own  hand. 
There  is  all  the  discretion  and  tact  of  a  woman 
entirely  mistress  of  herself  and  perspicacious  as 
to  the  character  of  him  to  whom  her  plea  was 
addressed,  in  her  promise  that  when  at  last  better 
days  should  have  dawned  —  David's  soul  "  bound 
in  the  bundle  of  life  with  Jehovah,  and  the  souls 
of  his  enemies  slung  out  by  God  as  from  the 
hollow  of  a  sling  "  7 —  then  "  this  shall  be  no  grief 
unto  thee,  nor  offense  of  heart  unto  my  lord, 
either  that  thou  hast  shed  blood  causeless  or  that 
my  lord  hath  avenged  himself." 

Ill 
These  love-stories  are  idylls.     The  love-story 
of  Shelomith  in  the  Canticles  is  a  drama ;  whether 

7  1    Sam.    25:  29.     There   is   a  delightful  and  most  tactful   refer- 
ence  here   to  David's  victory  over   Goliath. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  159 

founded  on  fact  or  a  pure  work  of  the  imagina- 
tion we  have  no  other  means  of  discovering  than 
the  literary  canons  by  which  we  decide  upon  the 
character  of  other  works  of  literature.  But  for 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  written  it  makes  no 
difference.  The  marvelous  tragedy  of  Romeo 
and  Juliet  does  not  owe  its  transcendent  value  to 
the  fact  that  the  Montagus  and  Capulets  actually 
lived  and  were  at  enmity,  but  to  the  truth  of  its 
revelation  of  love.  So  with  the  Song  of  Songs : 
its  meaning  is  of  the  highest  possible  value,  and 
whether  or  not  Shelomith  actually  lived  and  was 
wooed  by  Solomon  is  not  of  so  much  importance 
as  the  fact  that  in  an  age  like  that,  in  a  part  of 
the  world  where  to  belong  to  the  king's  harem 
was  the  highest  aspiration  of  woman,  the  triumph 
of  true  love  over  all  the  blandishments  of  a  king 
and  his  court  could  be  sung  by  any  poet,  and  an 
ideal  like  this  held  up  before  the  women  of  Israel. 

Some  of  my  readers  are  perhaps  surprised  to 
hear  that  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  poem,  which 
they  may  have  held  to  be  an  allegory  of  the  love 
between  Christ  and  his  church.  But  we  are  not 
here  concerned  with  the  mystical  interpretation 
or  spiritual  application  of  the  Bible  books,  but 
with  their  primary  meaning,  as  a  thing  to  be  dis- 
covered by  a  study  of  their  literary  form. 

The  literary  form  of  the  Song  of  Songs  is  not 
by  any  means  a  matter  on  which  all  students  are 


160  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

agreed.  The  more  carefully  I  apply  to  it  the 
canons  of  Hebrew  poetry,  so  far  as  I  understand 
them,  the  more  certain  does  it  appear  to  me  that 
it  is  a  drama ;  but  I  began  this  study  sharing  the 
conviction  of  the  majority,  perhaps,  of  com- 
mentators that  this  is  not  a  drama  at  all,  but  a 
collection  of  amoebean  lyrics,  like  Tennyson's 
Maud,  for  instance,  and  with  only  the  slightly 
dramatic  character  of  the  changes  of  scene  and  of 
states  of  feeling  which  we  find  in  such  a  poem 
as  Maud.  But  careful  study  of  the  poem  has 
compelled  a  change  in  my  opinion.8 

Still  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  compare  the  Song 
of  Songs  with  an  English  drama ;  still  more  of  a 
mistake  perhaps  to  compare  it  with  the  Greek 
drama.  None  of  my  readers,  probably,  have 
ever  seen  a  performance  in  the  Hebrew  theater 
in  the  Bowery,  New  York,  or  elsewhere,  but  they 
may  have  heard  something  about  it.  In  certain 
important  respects  those  performances  are  more 
like  a  Wagner  opera,  minus  the  music,  than  like 
a  Shakespearean  play  —  at  least  the  interminable 

8  Although  the  ancient  Hebrews  had  no  theater,  their  dramatic 
instinct  was  very  strong,  and  early  developed.  As  Duhm  points 
out  {Encyclopedia  Biblica,  art.  "  Poetry  "),  dramatic  elements  en- 
tered into  their  temple  service  (cf.  Ps.  24)  as  well  as  their 
mournings,  and  especially  their  wedding  festivals.  To  this  day 
weddings  in  Palestine  have  a  highly  marked  dramatic  character. 
This  "  Song  of  All  Songs "  may  have  been  a  favorite  entertain- 
ment in  Israel's  palmy  days,  during  the  week-long  (Gen.  29:  8; 
Judg.  14:  12,  17)  marriage  festivals  of  the  great.  Syrian  school- 
girls today  delight  in  nothing  more  than  "  playing  wedding,"  which 
they  do  in  highly  dramatic  wise. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  l6l 

monologues,  the  lack  of  action,  are  somewhat 
Wagneresque.  We  know  that  classic  drama 
strictly  observes  the  three  unities  —  of  time, 
place,  and  action;  the  English  drama  gives  small 
heed  to  the  unities.  The  action  of  a  Greek 
drama  must  all  be  comprised  within  a  single  day; 
one  of  Shakespeare's  plays  lasts  over  twenty 
years.  The  Hebrew  drama  is  like  the  Shake- 
spearean in  disregarding  the  unity  of  time,  but 
it  goes  farther  and  disregards  the  sequence  of 
time.  It  is  in  the  very  genius  of  western  litera- 
ture to  make  events  follow  in  order  of  time, 
though  even  western  literature  makes  one  excep- 
tion —  in  the  novel,  where  the  past  is  often  called 
up  by  retrospect.  Hebrew  literature  cares  little 
for  the  sequence  of  time;9  the  event  that  came 
first  is  not  necessarily  related  first.  We  find  in  the 
prophets,  and  also  in  the  histories,  repeated  illus- 
trations of  this  disregard  of  time  sequence,  and 
the  same  disregard  of  time  sequence  rules  the 
Hebrew  drama,  modern  no  less  than  ancient.  I 
think  it  is  from  not  keeping  this  fact  in  mind  that 
those  who  try  to  show  that  the  Song  of  Songs  is  a 
drama  find  so  much  difficulty  in  fitting  the  words 
to  the  theory. 

8  The  Hebrew  verb  has  not  at  all  the  time  implications  which 
we  find  in  the  verb-forms  of  modern  (western)  languages.  Prop- 
erly speaking,  it  has  no  tenses;  its  present  and  imperfect  signify 
respectively  complete  and  incomplete,  conditional  or  in  process, 
whether  in  present,  past,  or  future  time.  One  of  the  difficulties 
of  Hebrew  literature  is  that  it  is  inevitably  conditioned  by  this 
absence   of  time-sense. 


162  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Turning  to  the  Song  of  Songs  in  the  Revised 
Version,  the  first  thing  to  be  noticed  is  its  stroph- 
ical  arrangement :  the  verses  are  grouped  into 
longer  and  shorter  strophes,  in  which  the  chapter 
divisions  of  2,  3,  and  8  are  disregarded.  Look- 
ing closely,  we  find  that  there  are  three  refrains, 
each  occurring  three  times,  though  not  in  the 
same  relative  positions.     One  of  these  refrains  is : 

Until  the  day  be  cool  and  the  shadows  flee  away, 

Turn,  my  beloved,  and  be  thou  like  a  gazelle  or  a  young 

hart 
Upon  the  mountains  of  spices.10 

Another  refrain  is : 

I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 

By  the  gazelles  and  by  the  hinds  of  the  field, 

That  ye  stir  not  up, 
Nor  awaken  love 

Until  it  please.11 

There  is  no  pronoun  —  "  my  "  love  —  in  the 
Hebrew.  It  is  the  passion  of  love,  not  a  person, 
that  is  in  question. 

The  third  refrain  is: 

I  am  my  beloved's  and  my  beloved  is  mine, 
He  feedeth  his  flock  among  the  lilies.12 

It  would  not  be  correct  to  say  that  these  re- 
frains always  mark  changes  of  scene;  they  seem 

10  This  refrain  is  found,   with  certain  differences,  at  the  end  of 
chap.    2,   at  4:  6,   and   at  the   close   of  the   book. 

11  Found   at   2:7;    3:5,   and  8:4. 

12  Found,   with   some  variations,  at  2:  16;  6:3,  and  7:  10. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  1 63 

rather  to  mark  the  recurrence  of  certain  states  of 
feeling. 

The  characters  in  this  drama  are  Shelomith, 
King-  Solomon,  the  ladies  of  his  harem,  called 
"  daughters  of  Jerusalem,"  and  the  shepherd  lover 
of  Shelomith,  with  certain  citizens  and  shepherds. 
The  story  appears  to  be  as  follows : 

Shelomith,  a  beautiful  peasant  girl  living  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  kingdom,  is  the  daughter 
of  a  mother  who  has  several  sons  by  a  former 
marriage.  These  sons  are  not  friendly  to  their 
sister,  perhaps  because  they  are  not  pleased  with 
a  shepherd  wooer  of  hers,  and  they  send  her  to 
keep  a  vineyard  at  some  distance  from  her  home. 
But  the  shepherd  lover  follows  her,  and  it  seems 
probable  that  they  are  secretly  married.  At  any 
rate,  she  is  blissfully  happy  in  her  love,  and  one 
day,  when  in  the  ecstasy  of  her  rapture  she  is 
dancing,  all  by  herself  in  her  vineyard,  a  rather 
voluptuous  dance  called  "  of  Mahanaim,"  she  is 
seen  by  King  Solomon,  who  is  making  a  progress 
through  his  kingdom  attended  by  a  numerous 
retinue.  The  beauty  of  the  girl  awakens  desire 
for  her  possession,  and  the  king  has  her  stolen 
and  spirited  away  to  Jerusalem  in  one  of  his 
chariots.  There  she  is  placed  in  charge  of  "  the 
daughters  of  Jerusalem,"  whose  duty  it  is  to  pre- 
pare her  mind  for  the  honor  that  awaits  her. 
Desiring,  for  his  own  greater  pleasure,  to  win  her 


164  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

love  before  taking  her  for  a  wife,  King  Solomon 
sets  himself  on  his  return  to  lay  siege  to  her 
heart,  it  being  the  duty  and  the  policy  of  the 
ladies  of  the  harem  to  aid  him  in  what  both  he 
and  they  suppose  will  be  a  very  easy  conquest. 
It  is  high  promotion  for  a  peasant  girl,  the  sun- 
browned  keeper  of  a  vineyard,  to  become  one  of 
the  wives  of  the  king!  How  the  attempt  pros- 
pers will  come  out  as  we  read. 

The  first  scene  13  shows  the  bewildered  country 
girl  in  the  king's  harem,  surrounded  by  the  ladies 
of  the  palace.  Terrified  at  her  capture,  and  sore 
of  heart  with  separation  from  her  lover,  she  com- 
forts herself  with  imagining  that  she  is  with  him 
as  in  the  happier  days : 

Let  him  kiss  me  with  the  kisses  of  his  mouth. 

The  ladies  interrupt  her  with  praises  of  Solomon, 
not  understanding,  or  not  wishing  to  understand, 
that  it  is  of  her  shepherd  lover  that  she  is  speak- 
ing: 

Better  than  wine  are  thy  caresses, 

Lovely  the  fragrance  of  thy  vestments, 

Thou  whose  name  is  Sweet  Ointment  [that  is,  Solomon]  ! 

Therefore  the  maidens  love  thee! 

But  she  calls  upon  her  lover  to  rescue  her : 

Draw  me  after  thee, 

O  let  us  run! 

For  the  king  has  brought  me  into  his  chamber. 

"  Cant,    i :  2-8. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  165 

Then  the  women : 

He  will  frolic  and  rejoice  in  thee, 

Will  find  thy  caresses  more  grateful  than  wine. 

[Aside,  satirically]     Rightly  indeed  do  they  love  thee! 

The  persistence  of  the  women  in  thus  assuming 
that  everything  she  says  refers  to  the  king  con- 
fuses the  girl  and  interrupts  her  thoughts;  she 
sees  contempt  in  their  eyes,  mocking  surprise  that 
the  king  should  care  for  this  rustic  beauty.  The 
spirit  of  Shelomith,  who  in  fact  is  not  lacking  in 
spirit,  comes  to  her  aid.  She  justifies  herself  for 
her  sunburned  skin ;  it  is  because  her  brothers 
made  her  keep  the  vineyard.  She  may  be 
scorched  with  the  sun,  black  as  the  goats'-hair 
tents  of  the  Beduins,  but  she  knows  herself  for  all 
that  to  be  beautiful  as  the  gorgeous  hangings  in 
Solomon's  chamber.  But  the  mention  of  the 
vineyard  reminds  her  of  her  capture  —  her  own 
vineyard  she  is  now  not  able  to  keep;  and  then 
her  grief  breaks  forth  in  a  passionate  appeal  to 
her  absent  lover : 

Tell  me,  O  thou  whom  my  soul  lovcth, 
Where  feedest  thou  thy  flocks  —  where 

Makest  them  to  rest  at  noon? 
That  I  may  not  be  like  one  quite  forgotten 

Among  the  flocks  of  the  comrades ! 

The  ladies  answer  her  with  sneers :  "  Are  you 
so  witless,  fairest  woman,  as  to  prefer  your  peas- 
ant lover  to  Solomon  ?  "     And  they  mockingly 


166      HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

bid  her  go  search  for  her  lover  among  the  shep- 
herds' tents. 

The  second  scene  opens  14  with  the  entrance  of 
Solomon,  who  sets  himself  to  win  her  heart  with 
studied  compliments,  which  have  all  the  "  local 
color  "  so  much  prized  by  modern  novelists.  We 
may  recall  to  mind  that  Solomon,  by  his  marriage 
with  Pharaoh's  daughter,  had  lately  become  the 
proud  possessor  of  horses : 

To  my  steed  in  Pharaoh's  chariot 
Do  I  liken  thee,  my  friend  [he  does  not  say  "  my  love," 
as  in  our  English  Bible]. 
Lovely  are  thy  cheeks  with  ringlets, 

the  only  ornaments  of  the  peasant  girl.  But  he 
knows  the  value  of  jewels  and  fine  clothes  in  a 
siege  like  this,  and  he  tells  her  that  she  shall  have 
finer  ornaments  than  her  curls  —  strings  of  jew- 
els and  studs  of  gold,  and  so  on.  The  girl 
answers  him  briefly,  but,  remembering  that  he  is 
the  king,  with  best  compliment  she  knows  how  to 
make : 

While  the  king  sat  at  his  table 
My   spikenard   gave  out  its   fragrance    [her  tribute   of 
homage]. 

We  may  observe  here  that  Solomon  has  the  ori- 
ental fondness  for  perfume:  his  name  is  Sweet 
Ointment. 

But  Shelomith  is  perfectly  well  aware  that  he 

14  Cant.    1:9  —  2:  7. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  167 

purposes  to  lay 'siege  to  her  heart,  and  she  flies 
to  her  only  defense  —  the  thought  of  her  absent 
lover,  who  is  a  bunch  of  myrrh  to  her  —  talking 
to  him  in  a  stage  aside,  and  matching  each  of 
Solomon's  pretty  speeches  with  an  impassioned 
application  of  it  to  the  one  whom  her  soul  loves. 
Thus  when  Solomon  says  to  her  (vs.  15)  : 

Indeed   thou  art   lovely,  my  friend, 
Yes,  lovely  are  thy  dovelike  eyes ; 

she  repeats  in  her  passionate  aside  to  her  absent 
shepherd  (vss.  16,  17)  : 

Indeed  thou  art  lovely,  and  delightful,  my  beloved. 
Our  house  has  beams  of  cedar, 
Our  rafters  are  of  cypress. 

In  this  rustic  home  of  theirs  she  had  been  like 
a  crocus  of  the  plain  of  Sharon  or  the  brilliant 
anemone  of  the  upland  valleys  (2  :  1). 

Solomon  goes  on  with  his  blandishments: 

As  a  lily  among  thorns 
Is  my  friend  among  the  maidens. 

It  only  suggests  to  her  another  thought  of  her 
absent  lover : 

As  an  apple  among  the  trees  of  the  wood 
So  is  my  beloved  among  the  sons. 

And  she  thinks  longingly  of  the  delight  of  being 
under  his  shadow,  with  his  love  like  a  banner 
above  her.     Her  longing  grows  more  intense : 


168  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Strengthen  me  with  raisin  cakes, 
Comfort  me  with  apples  — 

For  I  am  sick  with  love. 
His  left  arm  under  my  head 

And  his  right  arm  embracing  me! 

The  thought  of  the  king's  purpose  becomes  in- 
tolerable, and  she  bursts  forth  with : 

I  adjure  you,  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  gazelles,  by  the  hinds  of  the  field, 

That  ye  stir  not, 
Awaken  not, 

Love  until  it  please! 

And  so  the  scene  closes;  for  though  the  poor, 
tortured  girl's  appeal  had  been  only  to  the  ladies 
of  the  harem,  the  king  perceived  from  it  that  it 
was  useless  for  him  to  try  any  longer  at  this  time 
to  awaken  love. 

The  third  scene  15  opens  with  Shelomith  in  her 
chamber,  gazing  from  her  lattice  —  that  lattice 
window  which  means  so  much  in  the  life  of  the 
eastern  harem  —  gazing  northward,  wholly  ab- 
sorbed in  thought  of  her  lover : 

Hark  to  my  beloved !  see  him  coming 
Leaping  over  mountains,  springing  over  hills! 

She  imagines  that  he  has  followed  her  even  to 
the  king's  palace,  that  he  will  rescue  her;  she 
fancies  him  calling: 

18  2: 8-17. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  169 

Arise  my  friend, 

My  beauty,  and  come ! 
For  see,  the  winter  has  passed, 
The  rain  is  over  and  gone, 
The  flowers  appear  in  the  land, 
The  time  of  singing  is  come 
And  the  turtledove's  murmur  is  heard  in  our  land. 

She  sees  the  reddening  figs,  smells  the  odor  of 
the  blossoming  vines,  and  hears  him  call  again  : 

Arise,  my  friend, 

My  beauty,  and   come  away! 

All  the  longing  of  her  soul  bursts  forth  in  her 
answering  song: 

O  my  dove  that  art  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks, 

In  the  covert  of  the  steep  place, 
Let  me  see  thy  countenance,  let  me  hear  thy  voice ! 
For  sweet  is  thy  voice  and  thy  countenance  lovely. 

Is  it  possible  that  that  is  indeed  his  voice  that 
comes  to  her  floating  up  from  outside  the  palace  ? 
Has  he  indeed  followed  her  from  his  far-away 
home  on  the  slopes  of  Lebanon,  though  he  can  by 
no  means  gain  entrance  to  the  palace?  Ah,  yes! 
From  the  high  lattice  window  the  Shulamite  sees 
her  lover 

Standing  behind   our  wall, 
Looking  in   at   the  windows, 
Showing   himself  through   the   lattice. 

It  was  not  wholly  imagination  that  she  had  heard 
him  singing : 


170  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Arise,  my  love, 

My  beauty,  and  come  away! 

Like  Blondin  beneath  the  captive  Lionheart's 
prison,  making  his  presence  known  with  his  little 
song,  so  the  shepherd  lover  gives  his  signal  with 
the  refrain  of  a  little  song  they  had  been  used  to 
sing  together  while  trimming  their  grapes : 

Take  us  the  foxes, 

The  little  foxes  that  spoil  the  vineyards, 

For  our  vineyards  are  in  blossom. 

In  her  deep  joy  she  sings  back  the  refrain : 

My  beloved  is  mine  and  I  am  his, 
He  feedeth  among  the  lilies. 

And  her  last  appeal  that  somehow  he  shall  find 
a  way  to  rescue  her : 

Until  the  day  grows  cool,  and  the  shadows  flee  — 

Come  to  me,  and  soon,  my  beloved ! 
Like  the  gazelle   or  the  young  hind 

Over  the  hills  that  part  us ! 

IV 
Some  time  has  elapsed  before  the  second  act.18 
It  seems  to  be  early  morning,  and  Shelomith  is 
telling  the  ladies  of  the  harem  of  a  painful  dream 
that  she  has  had :  How  by  night  on  her  bed  (that 
is,  in  her  dreams)  she  sought  him  whom  her  soul 
loved  and  found  him  not;  and  how  in  her  dream 
she  arose  and  sought  him  through  the  city,  but 

18  Cant.   3 :  i-4- 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  171 

found  him  not.  Of  the  watchman  who  found 
her  she  asked  where  he  was ;  then  suddenly,  with 
one  of  the  abrupt  changes  of  a  dream,  she  saw 
him,  held  him,  and  would  not  let  him  go,  and 
brought  him  home  to  her  mother's  house.  Ah, 
with  that  dream  in  her  mind  shall  the  ladies  dare 
to  go  on  with  their  senseless  attempts  to  make 
her  love  the  king? 

I  adjure  you,  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  gazelles,  or  by  the  hinds  of  the  fields, 

That  ye  stir  not, 

Awaken  not, 
Love  until   it  will ! 

The  second  scene  17  opens  in  a  new  place.  It 
is  one  of  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  whither  Shelo- 
mith  has  been  led  that  she  may  be  impressed  by 
the  sight  of  Solomon  in  his  palanquin  coming  in 
state  from  some  country  progress  surrounded  by 
his  bodyguard.  Those  who  are  familiar  with 
eastern  story  know  how  the  first  promise  of  an 
approaching  army  or  caravan  is  always  great 
clouds  of  dust  rising  like  smoke.  So  now  a  voice 
of  one  of  the  citizens  cries  out  in  admiration : 

Who    is    this    coming    out    of    the    desert,    like    pillars    of 
smoke, 
Perfumed   with  myrrh  and  frankincense?   etc. 

"3:6-11- 


172  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Another  answers: 

Lo!  it  is  Solomon's  litter! 

Fifty  heroes  around  him  — 
Heroes  of  Israel ; 
Their   swords   are    girt   to  their   hips 

To  prevent  the  nightly   surprise. 

And  a  third  exclaims : 

A  gorgeous  palanquin  made   Solomon 
Of  wood  from  Lebanon. 

And  describes  its  beauties,  ending : 

Come  forth  and  behold,   you   daughters   of  Zion, 

Behold    King    Solomon, 
And   the   crown  wherewith   his  mother  crowned   him 

On  the  day  of  his   espousals  — 

The  day  of  his  gladness  of  heart ! 

In  the  third  scene  18  they  have  returned  to  the 
palace,  and  Solomon  enters  to  see  what  effect  his 
grand  display  has  produced.  He  begins  his  com- 
pliments : 

Indeed,  thou   art  fair,  O  my  friend ; 
Yes,  fair  thy  doves'  eyes,  behind  thy  locks ; 

cataloguing  all  her  beauties  in  comparison  with 
everything  lovely  and  imposing:  her  lips  like  a 
thread  of  scarlet,  her  neck  like  the  tower  of 
David,  and  so  on.  Evidently  the  ladies  had  re- 
ported her  little  song  of  the  day  before,  for  with 
what  seems  like  a  refinement  of  sarcasm  he  par- 

,84:  1-7. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  1 73 

odies  her  refrains,  comparing  her  breasts  to  two 
young  gazelles  that  feed  among  lilies ;  and  then, 
as  she  makes  him  no  reply,  he  goes  on  with  his 
parody  of  her  request  of  her  lover : 

Until  the  day  grows   cool    and  the   shadows  flee 
I  will  get  me  to  my  mountains  —  of  myrrh, 
And  to  my  hills  —  of  frankincense. 

In  other  words,  he  will  retire  and  perfume  him- 
self, leaving  her  with  one  parting  compliment  to 
meditate  upon : 

Thou  art  all  fair,  my  friend, 
Thou  art  altogether  spotless ! 

In  the  fourth  scene19  Shelomith,  being  left 
alone  with  the  ladies,  falls  back  upon  her  mem- 
ories —  how  in  the  happy  days  gone  by  her  lover 
had  sung  to  her : 

Come  with  me  to  Lebanon, 
My  bride,  with  me  to  Lebanon ; 
Look  from  the  top  of  Amana, 
From  the  top  of  Shenir  and  of  Hermon. 
Come  from  the  dens  of  the   lions 
With  me  from  the  hills  of  the  leopards  [the  wild 
mountains  that  they  know  so  well]. 

So  the  remembered  song  goes  on : 

Thou    wakest    my    heart,    sister-bride, 
My  heart  with  one  of  thine  eyes, 
With  one  chain  of  thy  neck! 

Sweet  thy  caress,  sister-bride  — 

"4:8-5:  1. 


174  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Sweeter  thy  kisses  than  wine, 
Thy  perfumes  sweeter  than  spice ; 

Thy  lips  drop  honey,  my  bride  — 
Honey   and   milk    from   thy   tongue  — 

And  thy  clothes  like  Lebanon's  perfume. 

The  purity  of  the  love  she  has  known  is  in  start- 
ling contrast  to  the  love  of  the  harem,  but  she  is 
probably  too  innocent  to  recognize  this;  she  only 
remembers  that  to  her  own  true  lover  she  was  a 
sister-bride,  and  that  she  was  all  for  him,  a  gar- 
den walled  round  from  all  but  him,  the  fountain 
of  her  love  sealed  to  all  but  her  own  beloved : 

O !   walled-about  garden,    sister-bride, 
Walled-about  well,  fountain  sealed, 

Shoots  of  a  pomegranate  garden 
Filled   with  precious  fruits! 

Henna  with  spikenard, 

Spikenard    with    saffron, 

Calamus  and  cinnamon ; 

Trees   of    frankincense, 

Myrrh   and  aloes, 

With  costliest  spice; 
Thou  fount  of  the   garden ! 
Thou  living  water-spring, 
Rippling  streams  from  Lebanon ! 

To  him  she  had  given  herself  with  delicate 
unreserve,  calling  to  the  winds  to  breathe  upon 
this  garden  that  all  its  spices  might  flow  out  for 
him.  But  the  king  has  entered  and  heard  her 
loving  soliloquy,  and  taking  up  her  words  he 
answers : 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  1 75 

I  come  to  my  garden,  sister-bride, 
I  gather  my  myrrh  with  my  spice, 
I  eat  my  honeycomb  with  my  honey; 
I  drink  my  wine  with  my  milk. 

While  the  chorus  of  women  breaks  in  with : 

Eat,  O  friends, 

Drink  —  yes,  drink  abundantly  of  love! 

We  may  imagine  the  girl  turning  away  from 
her  royal  lover ;  for  when  the  fifth  scene  20  opens 
it  is  still  of  her  shepherd  that  she  is  thinking. 

Another  night  has  passed  between  these  scenes, 
and  she  is  again  telling  her  dream  to  the  court 
ladies  —  either  she  dreamed  that  she  was  mar- 
ried to  her  beloved,  or,  as  seems  more  probable, 
in  her  dream  she  lived  over  again  their  wedding- 
day,  but  with  all  the  cruel  cross-purposes  of  a 
dream.  She  had  delayed  for  a  moment  to  open 
to  him,  and  he  had  gone  away  —  then  when  she 
sought  him  through  the  city  in  the  night,  the 
watchman  had  been  unkind  to  her,  mistaking  her 
character.  As  she  tells  the  dream,  her  longing 
for  her  shepherd  grows  intense,  and  the  scene 
closes  with  the  refrain,  altered  to  correspond 
with  this  advance  in  her  feeling : 

I  adjure  you,  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
If  you  find  my  beloved  —  what  will  you  tell  him?  — 
That  I  am  sick  with  love! 

»S:a-«. 


176         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

In  the  sixth  scene21  the  same  persons  are  pres- 
ent ;  the  ladies  ask  her : 

What  is  your  beloved  as  a  friend, 

O   fairest   woman  — 
What  is  your  beloved  as  a  friend, 

That  you  so   adjure  us? 

And  she  answers,  singing  his  praises  in  happiest 
tones : 

My  beloved   is   white  and   red ;   the  chiefest   among-  ten 
thousand, 

describing  all  his  personal  charms  in  detail  — 
his  curly  black  locks,  his  lips  like  scarlet  lilies, 
his  eyes  like  doves,  and  so  on  —  proudly  ending : 

This  is  my  beloved  and  this  my  friend, 
Ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem! 

They  mockingly  ask  her  where  this  paragon 
has  gone,  and  she  answers  first  with  the  figure 
with  which  she  before  comforted  herself  (that 
she  is  his  garden),  that  he  is  gone  to  his  garden 
to  gather  lilies  (that  is,  that  he  is  thinking  of 
her),  repeating  the  same  idea  in  the  refrain  which 
closes  the  scene : 

I  am  my  beloved's,  and  my  beloved  is  mine; 
He  feedeth  his  flock  among  the  lilies. 

Now  the  king  comes  in,22  but  he  is  no  longer 
at  ease,  secure  of  conquering  in  the  end,  ready 

"5:9  —  6:3.  w  Seventh  scene,  6:4  —  8:4. 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  1 77 

with  his  flatteries.  The  constancy  of  this  little 
peasant  girl  to  her  absent  lover,  her  utter  disre- 
gard of  the  compliments  and  the  gorgeous  gifts 
he  has  showered  upon  her,  the  steadfast  loyalty 
with  which  she  has  kept  her  mind  upon  her  be- 
loved, as  a  defense  against  the  king's  blandish- 
ments —  all  this  has  made  a  tremendous  impres- 
sion upon  Solomon,  used  to  seeing  women  easily 
yield  to  him.  He  is  half  afraid  of  this  simple 
mountain  girl  —  she  is  not  so  much  like  a  gentle 
doe  feeding  among  the  lilies  as  he  had  supposed ; 
she  is  rather  like  a  fortified  city : 

O  my  friend,  beauteous  as  Tirzah, 

Lovely  as   Jerusalem, 

Terrible  as  an  army  with  banners  — 

(Turn  away  thine  eyes  —  they  terrify  me!) 

She  must  look  away  if  he  is  to  go  on  with  his 
compliments  about  her  hair  and  her  teeth  and  her 
temples.  The  thought  of  her  steadfast  devotion 
and  purity  sickens  him  for  the  moment  of  his 
three-score  queens  and  four-score  concubines: 

My  dove,  my  queen  is  one, 
The  only  one  of  her  mother. 

Even  the  queens  and  concubines  must  admire 
her  beauty  and  virtue : 

The  daughters  saw  her  and  called  her  blessed, 
Yes,  the  queens  and  concubines  praised  her! 


178         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

She  has  ceased  to  listen;  against  the  subtle 
danger  that  lurks  in  this  apparent  conversion  of 
the  king  to  purity  and  single-hearted  devotion  she 
will  steel  herself  by  thinking  all  the  more  per- 
sistently of  her  absent  loved  one,  persuading  her- 
self that  it  is  he,  not  the  king,  who  thought  her 
terrible  as  an  army  with  banners.  She  lives  over 
again  that  dreadful  hour  when  she  was  lost  to 
him : 

I  went  down  into  my  nut  garden, 
To  see  how  the  trees  sprouted ; 
To  see  if  the  vine  was  budding 

Or  the  pomegranates   in   bloom. 

I  knew  not  that  my  will  had  brought  me 

To  the  chariot  of  the  noble  — 

(Solomon's  emissaries).     She  had   retreated  at 
sight  of  them,  and  they  had  recalled  her : 

Come  back,  O   Shelomith  — 

Come  back  that  we  gaze  upon  thee! 

All  unconscious  of  danger,  she  had  turned 
back  to  ask : 

What  will  ye  of  Shelomith? 

And  they  had  answered : 

The  dance  of  the  Mahanaim. 

This  was  the  fatal  dance  in  which  she  had  been 
expressing  her  girlish  joy  in  her  love,  her  lover, 
the  beautiful  spring  weather,  and  the  fact  of  liv- 
ing, when   Solomon  had  seen  her  through  the 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  179 

hedgerows  and  had  sent  his  emissaries  to  seize 
her.  Now  the  name  of  the  dance  carries  the 
king  back  to  that  time,  and  he  goes  over  it  with 
unction,  recalling  to  mind  all  the  concealed  beau- 
ties of  the  artless  girl,  as  they  had  been  revealed 
in  the  dance  when  she  thought  herself  unseen. 
This  seems  to  me  the  best  explanation  of  the 
voluptuous  description  of  the  first  nine  verses  of 
the  seventh  chapter.  It  is  unthinkable  that  Shel- 
omith  was  here  over-persuaded  into  giving  an 
exhibition  of  herself  in  a  dance  which  would  be 
indecent  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  though  en- 
tirely allowable  in  the  supposed  solitude  of  her 
own  garden. 

His  description  of  her  beauties  only  makes  her 
the  more  insist  that  she  is  true  to  her  absent  one : 

/  am  my  beloved's,  and  my  beloved  is  mine. 

She  fancies  her  shepherd  calling  her : 

Come,  my  beloved,  let  us  forth  to  the  field, 

Let  us  lodge  in  the  villages, 

Let   us  early   to   the   vineyards, 

Let  us  see  if  the  vines  flourish, 

If  the  vine  blossoms  have  opened, 

The  pomegranates  budded. 

There  will  I  give  thee  my  loves ; 

The  marsh  lilies  are  fragrant, 

And  about  our  gates  are  all  rare  fruits  — 

I  have  stored  them  for  thee,  my  beloved.23 

n  Professor  George  Adam   Smith's  translation  in  The  Historical 
Geography  of  the  Holy  Land. 


l8o         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Her  heart  goes  out  to  him  with  a  loud  cry  of 
longing : 

O  wert  thou  my  brother,  nursed  at  my  mother's  breast, 
That  I  might  find  thee  without  and  kiss  thee,  and  no  one 

despise  me ! 
That  I  might  lead  thee  to  my  mother's  house; 

Bring  thee  where  thou  mightest  teach  me; 

Give  thee  to  drink  of  spiced  wine,  of  pomegranate  juice! 

She  turns  passionately  with  her  last  appeal : 

I   adjure   you,   daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
Oh,  stir  not, 
Oh,  waken  not, 
Love,  until  it  will ! 

V 
Love  and  constancy  have  triumphed :  the  peas- 
ant girl  has  not  only  convinced  the  king  of  her 
perfect  loyalty  and  purity,  she  has  won  him  to 
her  side.  He  has  abandoned  his  attempt  to  win 
her  and  returned  her  to  her  home.  The  third 
act24  opens  with  the  happy  lovers  restored  to 
one  another,  drawing  near  to  a  group  of  shep- 
herds in  their  northern  country.  The  shepherds 
cry  amazed : 

Who  is  this  coming  from  the  wilderness, 
Leaning  on  her  beloved? 

Shelomith,  all  excitement,  is  telling  her  beloved 
how  she  was  brought  back  to  him  as  he  was  tak- 
ing his  noon-tide  rest : 


LOVE-STORIES  OF  ISRAEL  181 

Under  the  apple  tree  I  awaked  thee, 
Where   thy  mother   bare  thee  — 
Where   she  bare  thee  with  sorrow. 

The  passion  of  love,   born  of  those  days  of 
anguish  in  Jerusalem,  bursts  forth  : 

Lay  me  like   the  seal  ring  on   thine   heart; 

Like  the  seal   ring  on  thine  arm ! 
For  strong  as  death  is  love ; 

Cruel   as   the   grave   is  jealousy. 
Its   flashes    [jealousy]   are  fire  flashes; 
Its  glow   [love]  the  glow  of  God !  25 

Then,  as  she  realizes  that  she  is  safe  with  him, 
she  sighs  blissfully: 

Many   waters    cannot  quench   love, 
And   streams  can  never  drown  it. 
If  one    [for  instance,   Solomon]   offered  all  his  household 
goods  for  love, 
One  would  simply  scorn  him ! 

Now  Shelomith's  brothers  come  upon  the  scene  26 
and  try  to  justify  the  negligence  through  which 
their  little  sister  was  snatched  away.  They  had 
made  the  common  mistake  of  older  brothers  in 
not  perceiving  that  she  was  grown  up;  they  had 
no  idea  that  anyone  would  want  her.  In  future 
they  will  guard  her  better;  they  will  build  a  wall 
about  her  and  inclose  her  with  boards  of  cedar. 
Shelomith  answers:  She  is  a  wall  to  herself; 
has  she  not  guarded  her  purity  by  the  mighty 
power  of  true  love?     Under  the  figure  of  a  vine- 

25  An    interesting    instance    of    the    introverted   parallel. 
29  Scene  2,  vss.  8-14. 


1 82  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

yard  she  contrasts  the  riches  of  Solomon  with  her 
poverty ;  she  has  her  own  vineyard  now  —  is 
once  more  in  possession  of  herself  —  wants 
nothing  of  the  king. 

The  lover,  thus  far  speechless  with  unhoped- 
for joy,  now  breaks  in:  No  matter  about  Solo- 
mon, let  her  speak  a  word  of  love  for  himself : 

O  thou  who  dwellest  in  the  garden, 
The  companions  await  thy  voice. 
Let   me   hear   it! 

And  she  answers  with  the  refrain  of  her  captive 
days  —  its  thought  of  separation  left  out: 

Turn  again,  my  beloved,  and  be 
Like  the  gazelle  or  the  young  hinds 
Upon  the  balsam  hills. 

It  seems  to  me  unnecessary  to  justify  this  view 
of  this  exquisite  drama :  it  justifies  itself.  What- 
ever may  be  its  mystic  signification  —  and  that 
would  be  rather  heightened  than  lessened  by  our 
view  —  the  obvious  sense  is  one  we  can  ill  afford 
to  lose,  especially  in  these  days,  when  marriage 
is  coming  to  be  more  and  more  a  matter  of  calcu- 
lation, a  question  of  ways  and  means.  So  far 
back  as  this  in  the  world's  life  the  chosen  people 
could  cherish  an  ideal  of  love  so  pure,  so  strong, 
so  far  beyond  all  possibility  of  being  bought  by 
wealth  or  honor,  as  the  love  of  this  little  vineyard 
dresser  of  the  North  for  her  shepherd  of  Leb- 
anon. 


CHAPTER  VII 
A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE 

I 

All  the  love-stories  of  Israel  are  in  some  de- 
gree parables  of  divine  love.  One  after  another, 
as  they  pass  before  us,  they  leave  with  us  some 
elementary  lesson  of  the  great  truth  that  the  high- 
est of  all  relations  is  the  love-relation,  and  that 
this,  therefore,  must  be  the  relation  between  God 
and  man. 

Elementary  lessons  only:  the  human  mind 
needed  long  training  to  be  made  capable  of  re- 
ceiving a  truth  so  marvelous  as  that  God  himself 
is  love.  No  other  people  of  the  world  had  it; 
none  of  the  gods  of  the  nation  were,  in  any  eth- 
ical sense,  loving.  Just  as  from  the  first  the 
chief  difference  between  Israel  and  other  peoples 
was  that  Israel  put  an  ever-deepening  moral  con- 
tent into  the  notion  of  the  holiness  of  God,  so  at 
last  he  came  to  differ  from  other  peoples  still 
more  widely  by  his  recognition  of  love  as  the 
essential  characteristic  of  God.  But  this  recog- 
nition did  not  come  very  early  in  his  history ;  and 
when  we  discover  the  way  in  which  at  last  it  did 

183 


184         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

come,  and  look  back  over  the  past  up  to  that  time, 
we  perceive  that  all  through  their  early  history 
the  people  Israel  were  being  prepared  by  human 
love  for  the  revelation  of  the  love  divine. 

We  have  seen  how  early  the  Hebrew  people 
took  high  rank  in  their  notion  of  the  relations 
of  woman  and  man,  and  that,  as  a  consequence, 
the  Hebrew  women  were  from  the  first  remark- 
ably independent,  free,  capable  of  initiative,  and 
correspondingly  responsible.  As  the  wealth  and 
luxury  of  the  nation  increased,  we  hear  a  great 
deal  about  this  responsibility.  Prophets  like  Amos 
and  Isaiah  address  some  of  their  most  scath- 
ing utterances  to  women,  because  of  the  large 
part  they  had  had  in  the  deterioration  of  society ; 
but  the  indictment  against  them  was  not  so 
much  sexual  immorality  as  thoughtlessness  and 
frivolity.  "  Because  the  daughters  of  Zion  are 
haughty  "  and  extravagantly  fond  of  dress,  the 
men  of  Jerusalem  "  shall  fall  by  the  sword,"  and 
her  "mighty  in  the  war."1  It  is  "the  women 
that  are  at  ease,"  the  "  careless  daughters,"  who 
are  warned  that  they  are  bringing  trouble  upon 
the  nation.2  No  better  witness  to  the  dignified 
position  of  women  in  Israel  need  be  sought  than 


1  Isa.   3:16,  25. 

*  Isa.  32:9.  The  "  kine  of  Bashan,"  against  whom  Amos 
vehemently  inveighs  (4:  1-3),  are  cruelly  regardless  of  the  rights 
of  the  poor  in  their  gross  self-indulgence;  but  their  immorality 
appears  not   to  be  sexual. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  185 

prophecies  such  as  these.  Like  the  women  of 
America,  their  sins  were  those  of  freedom,  not 
of  slavery. 

But  whatever  advance  Israel  may  have  made 
upon  the  nations  in  apprehension  of  the  relation 
between  woman  and  man,  this  is  not  to  say  that 
the  invariable,  or  even  the  general,  notion  of  mar- 
riage was  that  of  a  love-relation.  In  general  it 
was  rather  that  of  protection  of  the  weaker  by 
the  stronger,  with  fidelity  as  the  due  return  for 
this  protection.  It  would  be  evident  to  the  most 
rudimentary  ethical  sense  that  the  woman  who 
was  absolutely  dependent  on  the  man  for  protec- 
tion owed  to  him  obedience  and  chastity.  But 
in  Israel  there  was  all  along  a  high  idea  and  in- 
tense realization  of  the  tenderness  of  the  bond 
between  man  and  wife.  The  position  of  woman 
in  Israel  was  one  of  dignity,  because  she  was  not 
only  protected  by  her  lord,  but  also  beloved  by 
him,  and  because  he  not  only  valued  her  fidelity, 
but  coveted  an  answering  love  from  her.  We 
have  seen  this  all  through  the  love-stories  of 
Israel. 

From  a  very  early  time  the  covenant  of  God 
with  Israel  was  presented  under  the  type  of  mar- 
riage —  its  breach  by  the  people  Israel  as  infi- 
delity to  the  marriage  vow.3     "  Jehovah,  whose 

3  This  idea  was  not  peculiar  to  Israel.  Nearly  all  Semitic 
peoples  had  it;  but  their  conception  of  the  relation  was  physical 
and    became    horribly   degrading.     Hosea    raised   this   conception    out 


1 86  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

name  [that  is.  whose  character]  is  Jealous,  is  a 
jealous  God,"  says  God  to  Moses;  "take  heed, 
therefore,  lest  thou  make  a  covenant  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  land,  and  go  a-whoring  after 
their  gods;"4  and  in  the  last  oracle  given  to 
Moses  before  his  death,  Jehovah  said:  "  Behold 
this  people  will  rise  up  and  go  a-whoring  after 
the  strange  gods  of  the  land  whither  they  go  to 
be  among  them,  and  will  forsake  me  and  break 
my  covenant  which  I  have  made  with  them."  5 
The  idea  of  the  marriage-relation  between  God 
and  Israel  was  always  present  to  the  mind  of 
Israel ;  but  this  is  not  to  say  that  they  recognized 
it  as  a  love-relation.  It  was  that  earlier  and  more 
universal  idea  of  fidelity  which  such  expressions 
as  these  suggested;  Jehovah  was  a  great  king 
above  all  other  gods;  he  powerfully  protected 
Israel  from  all  enemies  as  a  husband  protects  his 
wife;  therefore  Israel  owed  him  the  fidelity  due 
from  wife  to  husband.  To  acknowledge  that  the 
gods  of  other  nations  had  any  claim  to  Israel's 
service  was  precisely  such  a  sin  as  the  breach  of 
the  marriage  vow. 

The  earliest  in  order  of  the  written  prophets 
was  probably  Amos,  and  in  Amos  the  first  ad- 

of  the  natural  to  the  moral  sphere,  and  by  that  fact  elevated  and 
purified  not  only  the  idea  of  the  relation  of  man  to  God,  but  the 
idea  of  marriage  itself,  showing  its  essential  basis  to  be  not  phys- 
ical,  but  moral. 

«Ex.   34:  14.   IS-  "Deut.    31:  16. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  187 

vance  toward  the  idea  of  love  is  made  in  the 
teaching  that  Jehovah  is  a  God  of  mercy ;  but 
Amos  does  not  teach  his  love.  Up  to  that  time 
Jehovah  had  been  known  as  a  God  of  justice,  a 
righteous  God ;  having  a  right,  therefore,  to  de- 
mand fidelity  and  to  punish  infidelity.  Amos  saw 
that  God  could  be  and  was  merciful,  and  this 
prepared  the  way  for  the  higher  truth  which  is 
the  highest  we  are  as  yet  able  to  conceive  —  the 
truth  of  the  love  of  God. 

II 
As  all  through  their  history  the  people  of  Is- 
rael had  been  gradually  prepared  to  receive  this 
truth  by  their  own  beautiful  experience  of  human 
love,  so  at  last  the  revelation  came  in  the  same 
way.  Hosea  followed  Amos,  and  Hosea  it  was 
who  taught  that  this  was  the  relation  of  the  na- 
tion to  its  God  —  that  he  loved  Israel,  and  de- 
sired a  reciprocal  love.  Not  sacrifice,  but  kind- 
ness,6 Hosea  says,  is  what  God  would  have  — 
the  kindness  of  a  woman  in  the  day  of  her 
espousals;7  the  first  timid,  but  most  beautiful, 
response  of  the  heart  of  wife  to  husband.  From 
this  time  the  thought  of  Israel  as  the  bride  of 

*  Hos.  6:6.  Recent  translators  have  made  many  attempts  to 
give  adequate  translation  to  the  Hebrew  word  here  used.  Pro- 
fessor G.  A.  Smith  has  perhaps  been  most  successful  in  trans- 
lating it  (The  Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets)  "  leal  love."  But 
though  it  does  include  the  idea  of  loyalty,  there  is  more  in  it  than 
that;   there   is  also   implied   a   gracious   self-giving. 

T  Jer.   2:  2, 


1 88         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Jehovah  became  a  standing  metaphor;  the  mar- 
velous truth  that  God  loved  Israel  with  an  ever- 
lasting love  was  never  absent  from  the  prophetic 
teaching.  For  more  than  two  thousand  years 
this  truth  has  been  the  inspiration  of  all  that  is 
noblest  in  the  human  race. 

But  it  was  not  through  the  blissful  experience 
of  a  happy  love  that  Hosea  learned  this  truth  of 
truths.  In  the  throes  of  a  grief  more  tragic  than 
common  men  can  experience  was  the  knowledge 
of  God's  love  born  into  the  world.  The  love- 
experience  of  Hosea  was  a  parable  of  divine  love, 
because  like  it  his  love  was  ill  requited,  outraged, 
wounded  well-nigh  unto  death,  and  yet  triumph- 
ant even  unto  salvation.  The  prophecy  of  Hosea 
is  the  story  of  a  passion  second  only  to  that  by 
which  the  world's  redemption  was  won :  the  book 
throbs  with  the  agony  of  an  indescribable  woe; 
its  rhythm,  as  Cheyne  says,  is  the  rhythm  of  sobs 
and  sighs.  It  quivers  like  the  pulse  of  a  fever 
patient,  or  like  the  air  over  a  furnace  of  intoler- 
able heat.  "  Even  the  brief  parallelism  of  He- 
brew poetry  seems  too  long  for  the  quick  spasms 
of  the  writer's  heart,"  says  one  of  the  later 
writers  on  this  book,  George  Adam  Smith. 

Ill 

It  was  not  until  after  the  tragedy  of  his  life 
was  over  that  Hosea  recognized  that  it  had  been 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  189 

a  God-inspired  life.  Looking  back  over  the  long 
years  of  anguish  and  humiliation,  conscious  in  his 
own  heart  of  a  love  which  could  endure  through 
the  last  outrage,  and  by  sheer  force  of  its  own 
inviolability  win  back  its  object  to  fidelity  and 
love,  he  saw  that  if  this  was  possible  between 
human  husband  and  wife,  much  more  must  it 
be  true  of  Jehovah  in  his  relations  to  unfaithful 
Israel.  Thus  at  last  he  came  to  see  the  meaning 
of  his  martyrdom  —  that  God  had  made  him  the 
mediator  of  a  revelation  which  could  by  no  other 
means  have  been  given  to  mankind.  And  so, 
though  he  had  no  thought  of  this  in  the  days  of 
his  early  manhood,  when  first  he  saw  the  fatal 
beauty  of  Gomer,  daughter  of  Diblaim,  and  lov- 
ing her  made  her  his  wife,  not  dreaming  that 
she  would  ever  prove  unfaithful,  yet  when  all  the 
bitter  experience  was  over,  knowing  that  there 
can  be  no  evil  in  a  city  and  Jehovah  hath  not 
done  it,  it  seemed  to  him  as  if,  all  unknown  to 
himself,  God  had  impelled  him  to  "  Go,  take  a 
wife  who  is  a  harlot  and  will  bear  children  of 
harlotry ;  for  the  land  is  greatly  playing  the  har- 
lot in  departing  from  Jehovah."  8 

8  Hos.  1:2.  The  view  of  the  book  here  adopted,  first  set  forth 
in  English  by  Robertson  Smith,  has  found  many  adherents,  al- 
though its  difficulties  are  so  great  as  to  have  deterred  many  of 
the  best  scholars  from  adopting  it.  These  difficulties,  however, 
are  rapidly  yielding  to  sympathetic  investigation.  I  cannot  but 
think  that  to  distinguish  the  influence  of  that  absence  of  time- 
sense  to  which  I  have  referred  is  to  find  some  help  in  their 
solution. —  Let  me  take  this  opportunity  to  refer  my  readers  to  "  The 


190         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Hosea  loved  and  trusted  the  beautiful  false  girl. 
How  soon  did  the  terrible  distrust  of  her  fidelity 
begin  to  creep  over  him?     When  they  laid  his 
first-born  son  in  his  arms,  did  the  sickening  doubt 
whether  it  was  really  his  own  assail  his  soul? 
"  Jezreel  "  he  named  him  — "  God's  sowing ;  "  and 
afterward  the  name  seemed  to  him  an  omen;  for 
sowing  is  scattering,  and  he  perceived  that  God 
had  said :    "  I  will  visit  the  blood  of  Jezreel  upon 
the  house  of  Jehu,  I  will  break  the  bow  of  Israel 
in  the  vale  of  Jezreel ;  "  and  he  had  yet  to  learn 
that  what  God  scattereth  may  be  God's  seed,  the 
seed  of  a  new  people  with  a  new  heart.9     It  was 
the  brilliant  reign  of  Jehu's  great-grandson,  the 
second  Jeroboam,10  but  the  dynasty  of  Jehu  was 
already  hurrying  to  its  fall.     Baal-worship  and 
luxury  and  sins  of  many  kinds  had  utterly  cor- 
rupted the  state ;  the  function  of  the  prophet  had 
changed  from  what  it  had  been  in  the  days  of 
Samuel,    from    what    it    was    in    the   person    of 
Elisha.     In  those  days  of  ignorance  the  prophet 
had  been  the  defense  of  the  nation;  now  he  was 
the  nation's  critic,  setting  its  faults  and  sins  open- 
ly before  it.     Israel  had  been  unfaithful  to  God, 
and  it  was  Hosea's  part  to  tell  her  that  her  pun- 
ishment must  surely  come. 

Story  of  Hosea's  Marriage,"  by  Professor  Julius  A.   Bewer,  printed 
in    the    American    Journal    of    Semitic    Languages    and    Literatures, 
January,  1906,  which  came  to  my  knowledge  too  late  for  me  to  make 
the  use  of  it   which   I   should   have  liked  to   do. 
*  Hos.   1:3-5.  l0  2   Kings   14:23-29. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  191 

If  the  young  husband's  heart  was  tremulous 
with  vague  doubts  when  his  first-born  was 
brought  to  him,  it  was  torn  with  a  cruel  certainty 
when  a  few  years  later  a  baby  girl  was  laid  in  his 
arms.11  In  the  anguish  of  his  soul  he  named  her 
"  Lo-ruhamah" — "  She  that  never  knew  a  fath- 
er's love;"12  what  room  was  there  in  his  tor- 
tured heart  for  love  of  a  base-born  child?  The 
dark  shadow  of  his  woe  was  projected  upon  his 
country  —  faithless  to  its  God  as  his  fair  false 
wife  to  him.  "  I  will  no  more  show  a  father's 
love  to  the  house  of  Israel,"  he  seemed  to  hear 
God  say,  "  for  I  will  entirely  take  them  away." 
And  yet,  though  the  child  was  Lo-ruhamah,  the 
"  not  compassioned,"  the  memory  of  those  happy 
days  when  he  took  his  young  wife  home  forbade 
him  to  send  the  mother  away.  A  great  yearning 
to  save  her  from  herself  took  possession  of  him, 
and  he  could  no  more  cast  her  off  than  God  could 
cast  off  his  people. 

And  so  another  son  was  born.13  Alas!  "  Lo- 
ammi  " — "  Not-wiy-people  " —  was  the  only  name 
he  could  give  this  child,  to  whom  for  its  guilty 
mother's  sake  he  still  gave  the  protection  of  his 

11  Hos.    1 :  6-7. 

12  The  word  is  literally  "not  compassioned,"  but,  as  Professor 
George  Adam  Smith  has  strikingly  shown,  the  word  in  its  context 
includes  the  relation  of  fatherhood  — "  not  compassioned  by  a 
father."  The  quotations  in  this  chapter  are  mainly  from  Professor 
Smith's   The   Tnelve  Prophets. 

13  Hos.    1:8,  9- 


192         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

home.  It  seemed  to  him  as  if  God  had  named 
the  child,  thus  saying  to  guilty  Israel :  "  For  ye 
are  not  my  people  and  I  —  I  am  not  yours." 
There  was  a  long,  dolorous  way  before  Hosea 
ere  he  could  know  the  boundless  forgiveness  of 
God. 

When  in  after-years  he  wrote  this  cruel  story 
as  a  lesson  to  unfaithful  Israel,  Hosea  had  come 
to  see  farther  into  this  mystery  and  to  know  the 
unfailing  hope  that  may  be  based  upon  God's 
love.  And  so,  although  he  faithfully  wrote  down 
the  bitter  meaning  of  the  names  he  had  given  the 
children,  he  hastened  to  add :  14  "  Yet  the  num- 
ber of  the  children  of  Israel  shall  be  as  the  sand 
of  the  sea  which  cannot  be  measured  nor  counted, 
and  it  shall  be,  in  the  place  where  it  was  said  to 
them,  'No  people  of  mine  are  ye!'  it  shall  be 
said  to  them,  '  Sons  of  the  living  God ! '  And 
the  children  of  Judah  and  the  children  of  Israel 
shall  be  gathered  together  and  they  shall  appoint 
themselves  one  head,  and  shall  go  up  from  the 
land,  for  great  is  the  day  of  God's  sowing  (Jez- 
reel)  ;  therefore  say  unto  your  brethren  '  Ammi ' 
(my-people)  and  to  your  sisters  '  Ruhamah  * 
(she  is  compassioned)." 

But  this  was  long  afterward;  now  Hosea's 
tragedy    deepens.15      Unfaithful   wife,    unloving 

14  Hos.    i :  10  —  2:  i. 

10  The  second  chapter  of  this  prophecy  is  not  a  continuation 
of  Hosea's  story;  it  is  the  application  of  his  story  to  the  case  of 
Israel;    yet    it    seems    impossible    not    to    read,    beneath    the    impas- 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  193 

mother,  Gomer  abandons  the  husband  whose  no- 
ble loyalty  has  tried  so  long  to  save  her  from 
herself,  forsakes  the  children  whom  her  husband 
has  protected,  and  enters  upon  a  life  of  open 
shame.  How  her  husband  still  watched  over  her, 
thwarted  her  attempts  to  allure  other  lovers  to 
her,  secretly  provided  her  with  needful  things, 
so  that  she  should  not  be  impelled  by  want  to 
sin ;  how  he  even  brought  her  children  to  her 
in  the  vain  hope  that  their  baby  pleadings  would 
awaken  a  sense  of  duty  and  a  shame  of  sin  —  all 
this  we  may  read  between  the  lines  of  that  im- 
passioned second  chapter  in  which,  long  years 
after,  but  his  heart  still  quivering  with  the  pain 
and  shame  of  his  own  experiences,  Hosea  uttered 
the  call  of  God  to  individual  Israelites  to  strive 
to  rescue  their  mother,  the  nation,  from  her  apos- 
tasy: 

Plead  with  your  mother,  plead. 

sioned  words  which  Hosea  addressed  to  apostate  Israel,  the  bitter 
experiences  that  lay  between  the  story  of  chap,  i  and  that  of 
chap.  3.  How,  indeed,  can  it  be  otherwise?  Something  of  what 
is  indicated  in  chap.  2  must  have  happened;  else  why  the  need 
of  buying  back  his  wife?  And  is  it  thinkable  that  between  these 
two  periods  (his  experience  having  the  prophetic  significance  that 
we  knew  it  had)  Hosea  made  no  effort  to  save  his  erring  wife 
from  herself?  The  marvelous  reticence  with  which  he  keeps  in 
the  background  all  that  was  not  essential  to  his  prophetic  purpose 
only  makes  the  more  evident  the  facts  that  must  underlie  this  chap- 
ter. The  prophecy  is  the  direct  outcome  of  long  reflection,  upon  the 
facts  of  an  indescribably  painful  experience.  The  three  chapters  are 
a  unit,  and  the  place  of  chap.  2,  between  chaps.  1  and  3,  is  par- 
ticularly appropriate,  not  simply  because  the  story  that  may  be 
read  between  the  lines  belongs  here  in  the  sequence  of  events,  but 
because  this  chapter,  which  interprets  both  itself  and  the  other  two, 
is  the  "  central  peak  "  between  them,  or,  to  change  the  figure,  the 
very   keystone   of   the   arch. 


194         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 
And  as  even  this  fails  to  move  her  — 

If  she  will  not  be  my  wife, 

I  will  not  be  her  husband. 

Then  let  her  remove  her  whoredoms  from  her  face, 

And  her  adulteries  from  between  her  breasts; 

Lest  I  strip  her  naked, 

And  set  her  as  the  day  when  she  was  born, 

And  make  her  as  a  wilderness, 

And   set  her  like   a  dry  land, 

And  slay  her  with  thirst; 

And   upon   her   children  have  no  compassion ; 

For  they  are  the  children  of  whoredom.16 

If  her  children's  pleadings  move  her  not,  nor 
the  threat  of  punishment  to  her,  will  she  not  be 
moved  by  pity  for  the  little  ones,  who  will  be 
uncompassioned  if  she  have  not  compassion  on 
them  ?    Alas,  no ! 

Verily  their  mother  played  the  harlot: 

She  that  conceived  them  acted  shamefully  when  she  said, 

"  I  will  go  after  my  lovers, 

The  givers  of  my  bread  and  my  water, 

My  wool  and  my  flax,  mine  oil  and  my  drinks." 

All  hope  of  moving  her  by  love  or  fear  or  pity 
is  gone;  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  discipline: 

Therefore,  behold,  I  am  going  to  hedge  up  her  way  with 

thorns, 
And   build  her  a  wall, 
That  she  find  not  her  paths. 
When  she  would  pursue  after  her  lovers, 
She  shall  not  overtake  them ; 
When  she  would  seek  them,  she  shall  not  find. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  195 

Then  she  will  say,  "  Let  me  go 

And  return   unto  my  first  husband; 

For  it  was  better  with  me  then  than  now." 

It  is  all  spoken  of  Israel  and  to  Israel,  a  very 
utterance  of  Jehovah  by  his  prophet;  yet  how 
should  Hosea  not  remember  that  it  was  thus  that 
perverse  Gomer  had  believed  that  her  lovers 
would  give  her  all  she  needed,  if  only  she  could 
find  them;  how  bewildered  she  had  sought  after 
them,  not  perceiving  that  it  was  her  husband's 
love  which  thwarted  her,  in  the  hope  that  at  last, 
in  the  desperation  of  baffled  purpose,  she  would 
determine  to  return  to  him,  if  only  because  when 
she  was  with  him  it  had  been  better  with  her 
than  now.  So  blind  was  perverse  Israel  to  all 
Jehovah's  benefits. 

Indeed    she   did  not  know 

That  it  was  I  who  gave  her 

The  corn,  and  the  new  wine,  and  the  new  oil, 

And  silver  heaped  upon  her, 

And  gold  —  and  they  worked  it  up  into  a  Baal!17 

In  those  cruel  days  of  his  own  experience  Ho- 
sea had  perceived  that  to  take  back  his  wife  un- 
repentant would  be  no  kindness  to  her.  This 
outraged  husband,  who  had  so  loyally  watched 
over  his  erring  wife  in  her  open  infidelity,  still 
longed  to  save  her  from  herself.     She  needed  the 

"2:8. 


196         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

discipline  of  sorrow  to  soften  her  wanton  heart. 
Such  discipline  does  Israel  need. 

Therefore  I  will  turn  and  take  away 
My  corn  in  its  time  and  my  new  wine   in  its  season, 
And  I  will  pluck  away  my  wool  and  my  flax, 
That  should  have  covered  her  nakedness; 
And  now  I   will  reveal  her  shame 
In  the  eyes  of  her  lovers, 

And  no  man  shall  rescue  her  from  my  hand; 
And  I  will  make  an  end  of  all  her  joyance, 
Her  pilgrimages,   her  new  moons   and  her   Sabbaths,  and 
all  her  festivals.18 

As  Hosea  delivers  his  message,  sympathy  with 
God  takes  him  out  of  himself.  Jehovah  and  Is- 
rael occupy  all  his  thought : 

And  I  will  lay  waste  her  vines  and  her  figs, 

Of  which  she  said, 

"  They  are  a  gift,  mine  own, 

Which   my  lovers  gave  me ;  " 

And   I  will  turn  them  to  jungle 

And  the  wild  beasts   shall   devour  them. 

And  I  will  visit  upon  her  the  days  of  the  Baalim, 

When  she  used  to  offer  incense  to  them, 

When    she   decked    herself   with   her   nose-rings   and    her 

jewels, 
And  went  after  her  lovers ; 
And  me  she  forgat!  is  the  utterance  of  Jehovah.19 

In  spite  of  the  walls  with  which  Hosea  had 
hedged  her  up,  perhaps  even  because  of  them, 
Gomer  had  fallen  into  the  last  depth  of  vileness, 
had  sold  herself  into  slavery.     It  was  from  this 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  197 

iron  prison  of  degradation  that  her  desperate 
appeal  reached  Hosea's  ears.  What  husband 
could  take  back  a  wife  who  had  fallen  so  low? 
How  terrific  the  struggle  must  have  been  we 
need  little  knowledge  of  human  nature  to  show 
us;  how  it  ended  he  tells.  There  came  a  day 
when  it  was  to  him  as  if  God  spoke,20  telling 
him :  "  Go  again,  love  this  woman  beloved  of  a 
paramour  and  an  adulteress,  according  to  the  love 
of  Jehovah  toward  the  children  of  Israel ;  though 
they  are  turning  unto  other  gods  and  are  lovers 
of  raisin  cakes"  (offered  to  Baal).  And  so  he 
bought  her  to  him  —  oh,  the  bitterness  of  heart 
with  which  the  husband  went  to  her  owner  and 
bought  back  his  own  wife  "  for  fifteen  pieces  of 
silver  and  an  homer  and  a  half  of  barley  "  !  Vir- 
tue itself  would  have  been  outraged  had  he  taken 
her  back  to  him  unrepentant,  blind  to  the  heinous 
nature  of  her  past  conduct.  Hosea  might  indeed 
say  to  her  as  the  knightly  Arthur  to  guilty  Guine- 
vere: 

Lo,  I  forgive  thee  as  the  eternal  God  forgives; 

but  he  must  perforce  add : 

Do  thou   for  thine  own   soul  the  rest. 

But  Gomer  is  not  such  a  one  as  Guinevere,  to 
fight  the  bitter  fight  alone.  She  needs  both  disci- 
pline and  help.21     It  was  for  both  purposes  that 


3:1,  2. 


198         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

her  husband  said  to  her :  "  Many  days  shalt  thou 
abide  for  me ;  thou  shalt  not  play  the  harlot,  and 
thou  shalt  not  be  for  any  husband."  And  —  as 
if  his  whole  life  had  not  been  proof  of  his  fidelity 
—  he  adds :  "  And  I  for  my  part  also  will  be  so 
toward  thee."  It  is  the  memory  of  this  anxious 
probation  time  that  underlies  his  utterance  for 
God  to  Israel :  22 

Therefore  I  am  going  to  woo  her, 

And  I  will  bring  her  into  the  wilderness, 

And  speak  home  to  her  heart. 

The  day  must  have  come,  though  we  are  not 
told  of  it,  when  Hosea's  heart  began  to  quiver 
with  hope  that  a  repentant  love  would  be  the 
blissful  outcome  of  his  long  forgiveness  and  tire- 
less patience.  The  memory  of  it  had  become  a 
part  of  his  life  when  he  prophesied  to  Israel : 23 

And  from  thence  I  will  give  her  her  vineyards, 

And  the  vale  of  Akhor  (trouble)   for  a  doorway  of  hope; 

And  there  she  will  respond  to  me  as  in  the  days  of  her 

youth, 
As  in  the  day  when  she  came  up  from  the  land  of  Egypt. 
And  it  shall  be  in  that  day,  is  the  utterance  of  Jehovah, 
Thou  shalt  call  me  "  my  husband," 
And    thou    shalt    not    call    me    any    more    "  my    master " 

(Baal), 
For  I  will  take  away  the  names  of  the  Baalim  from  her 

mouth, 
And  they  shall  no  more  be  remembered  by  name. 

"2:14.  *»  2:15-17- 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  199 

And  during  these  anxious  wilderness  days, 
hardly  daring  to  hope  that  the  patience  of  his 
love  would  ever  be  rewarded  by  a  repentant,  and 
therefore  worthy,  love  from  Gomer,  Hosea  conies 
into  that  deeper  sympathy  with  God  which  makes 
him  perceive  that  of  necessity  —  in  very  love  — 
disaster  must  overtake  the  people  who  have  wan- 
dered from  God ;  that  during  many  days  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  must  abide  without  a  king  and 
without  a  prince  and  without  means  of  worship. 
Perhaps  it  is  because  he  can  believe  that  for  Is- 
rael the  discipline  will  be  potent,  can  see  by  faith 
that  "  afterward  the  children  of  Israel  will  turn 
and  seek  Jehovah  their  God  and  David  their  king 
and  come  trembling  unto  Jehovah  and  unto  his 
goodness  in  the  latter  days,"  that  he  dares  all 
this  time  to  hope  that  so  "  trembling,"  not  with 
terror,  but  in  the  thrill  of  love  born  of  penitence, 
and  a  new  consciousness  of  her  husband's  love, 
will  Gomer  come  to  him  one  day. 

What  manner  of  joy  can  a  husband  find  even 
in  a  repentant  and  thoroughly  reformed  wife, 
after  an  experience  like  this?  Ah,  one  must,  in- 
deed, love  almost  as  God  loves  to  be  able  to  rise 
above  the  shame  and  anguish  of  the  cruel  ordeal. 
Hosea' s  heart-strings  quivered  with  remembered 
pain  all  the  days  of  his  life.  Yet  that  his  forgive- 
ness was  a  reflection  of  God's  forgiveness  is  as 


200         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

certain  as  that  his  love  had  revealed  to  him  the 
love  of  God. 

The  hope  of  his  own  heart  is  a  revelation  of 
God's  heart : 24 

Verily,  I  will  espouse  thee  to  me  forever; 

Verily,  I  will  espouse  thee  to  me  in  righteousness, 

And   in  justice  and   in   kindness,  and   in   tender   mercies; 

Verily,  I  will  espouse  thee  to  me  in  faithfulness, 

And  thou  shalt  know  Jehovah. 

In  the  unfathomable  joy  of  an  infinite  forgive- 
ness Hosea  sees  all  nature  responding  when  once 
Israel  shall  have  responded  to  the  infinite  love  of 
God :  25 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  I  will  respond  — 

I  will  respond  to  the  heavens,  is  the  utterance  of  Je- 
hovah, 

And  they  shall  respond  to  the  earth, 

And  the  earth  shall  respond  to  the  corn, 

And  the  new  wine  and  the  new  oil ; 

And  these  shall  respond  to  Jezreel  [who  had  been  scat- 
tered like  seed  across  many  lands!  ; 

And  I  will  have  a  father's  compassion  on  the  Not-com- 
passioned, 

And  to  Not-my-people  I  will  say  "  My  people  thou  art !  " 

And  he  shall  say  "  My  God !  " 

The  bitter  story  of  Hosea's  life's  tragedy  was 
recorded  only  for  Israel's  sake,  that  apostate  Is- 
rael might  find  in  it  an  object-lesson  of  the  love 
of  God ;  and  the  rest  of  his  book  is  occupied  with 
God's  love  alone;  only  under  it  all  we  can  feel 

24  2:  19,  20.  **-2:  21-23. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  201 

the  throbbing  of  his  human  heart,  giving  back 
beat  for  beat  in  sympathy  with  every  heart-throb 
of  the  love  divine. 

How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim, 

Let  thee  go,  Israel? 

Shall  I  make  an  Admah  of  thee? 

Treat  thee  as  Zeboim   [the  destroyed  cities  of  the  plain]  ? 

Mine  heart  is  turned  upon  me, 

My  compassions  begin  to  boil ; 

I  will  not  perform  the  fierceness  of  my  anger, 

I  will  not  turn  to  destroy  Ephraim, 

For  I  am  God,  not  man. 

This  is  the  undreamed  secret  of  perfect  love; 
this  the  discovery  Hosea  made  in  the  blinding 
darkness  of  his  shame.20 

IV 

The  remainder  of  the  prophecy  is  entirely  de- 
voted to  interpreting  to  Israel  its  past,  and  espe- 
cially its  present,  history  in  the  light  of  this  new 
revelation  of  the  love  of  God.  Hosea  lived  in 
a  dreadful  time,  the  brilliant  reign  of  the  second 
Jeroboam,  under  whom  wealth  and  luxury  in- 
creased at  a  startling  rate.  The  rich  were  grow- 
ing richer  and  the  poor  poorer;  the  women  were 
careless  and  at  ease,  selfishly  indifferent  to  the 
trend  of  affairs ;  priest  and  prophet  alike  cor- 
rupt ;  Baal-worship  —  the  worship  of  the  powers 
of  nature  —  taking  the  place  of  the  worship  of 

»n:  8,  9- 


202         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Jehovah,  though  it  was  he  and  not  Baal  who 
gave  Israel  her  corn  and  her  wine.27  It  was  in 
this  brilliant,  thoughtless  time  that  Hosea  sounded 
the  alarm : 28 

Blow  ye  the  trumpet  in  Gibeah, 

The  clarion  in  Ramah, 

Raise  the  slogan  at  Beth-aven, 

"  After  thee,  Benjamin  !  "  29 

Ephraim  shall  become  desolation  in  the  day  of  punish- 
ment ; 

Among  the  tribes  of  Israel  I  have  made  known  what  is 
certain. 

After  a  time  came  the  fall  of  the  dynasty; 
Jeroboam's  son  Zechariah  assassinated  after  a 
six  months'  reign,  and  the  usurper  Shallum  mur- 
dered within  another  month,  factions  and  rival 
claimants  disputing  the  throne.30  For  a  dozen 
years  or  more  Assyria  was  appealed  to  by  one 
party,  Egypt  by  another;  Jehovah  forgotten  by 
both.  It  was  in  the  early  days  of  this  tumultuous 
time  that  Hosea,  remembering  how  it  was  only 
in  the  last  extremity  that  Gomer  had  turned  to 
him,  exclaims  for  God :  31 

I  will  go  back  into  my  place, 

Until  they  feel  their  guilt  and  seek  me. 

When  trouble  comes  they  will  soon  seek  for  me, 

"2:  8. 

29  Benjamin's  left-handed  slingers  were  always  the  vanguard. 
10  2  Kings   15:8,   10,   13-16. 
n  Hos.    5:  15  —  6:  1. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  203 

Saying,  "  Come,  let  us  return  unto  Jehovah, 
For  he  hath  rent  and  he  may  heal  us, 
He  hath  wounded,  so  he  may  bind  us  up." 

Then  as  things  went  on  from  bad  to  worse:32 

O,  Ephraim,  what  can  I  make  of  thee? 

O,  Judah,  what  can  I  make  of  theef 

Your    love    is   like    the   morning  cloud  — like  the   dew   it 

early  vanisheth ! 
Therefore  I  hew  them  by  the  prophets  — by  the  words  of 

my  mouth  I   slay  them, 
And  my  judgment  goes  forth  like  the  lightning; 
For  I  desire  kindness,  not  sacrifice.33 

Time  went  on,  and  one  king  of  Israel  had  be- 
come a  vassal  of  Assyria,  while  Egypt  was 
intriguing  to  set  another  on  the  throne.34  Again 
and  again  Hosea  tried  to  draw  his  countrymen 
to  allegiance  to  Jehovah,  by  warnings,  by  en- 
treaties, by  threats : 

Ephraim  is  blasted;  their  root  is  withered;  they  bear  no 
fruit ! 

Yea,  though  they  bring  forth,  I  will  slay  their  beloved 
children ! 

My  God  hath  cast  them  off,  for  they  hearkened  not  unto 
him! 

Alas!  they  shall  become  wanderers  far  among  the  na- 
tions.35 

It  is  the  doom  that  comes  upon  any  nation 
through  immorality  and  national  ill-faith.   Hosea 

a  6 :  4-6. 

*» "  The  kindness  of  a  woman  in  the  day  of  her  espousals." 
**2   Kings   15:17-20;   cf.   Hos.   5:13;  7:"  I  8:9;   «:  1. 
»»Hos.   9:  16,    17- 


204         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

did  not  live  to  the  exile,  but  he  could  foresee  the 
trend  of  events : 36 

He  shall  break  the  walls  of  their  altars,  he  shall  ruin  their 

pillars, 
For  already  they  are  saying :     "  No  king  have  we, 
For   we   have   not   feared   Jehovah,   and    the   king  — what 

could  he  do  for  us?  " 

In  this  extremity  of  danger  Hosea  pleads  with 
passionate  earnestness  for  a  true  repentance  — 
it  is  even  yet  not  too  late : 37 

Sow  unto  yourselves  in  righteousness  —  then  shall  ye  reap 
according  to  God's  kindness   (leal  love). 

Break  up  your  fallow  ground ;  for  it  is  time  to  seek  Jeho- 
vah 

Until  he  come  and  rain  righteousness  upon  you. 

He  appeals  to  the  past  history  of  Israel  —  to 
the  early  days  when  Jehovah  so  wonderfully  in- 
terposed in  his  destinies  : 3S 

When  Israel  was  a  child  I  loved  him,  and  out  of  Egypt  1 

called  him  to  be  my  son.39 
The  more  I  called  them  the  farther  they  went  from  me; 
They  kept  sacrificing  unto  the  Baalim,  and  burning  incense 

unto  graven  images. 
Yet   I,  even  I,   taught  Ephraim  to  walk  —  taking  him  by 

the  arms    [as  a  father  takes  a  little  child]  ; 
But  they  knew  not  that  it  was  I  who  healed  them   [when 

the  little  child  fell  and  hurt  himself]. 
With  the  cords  of  a  man  I  drew  them,  with  the  bands  of 

love   [the  leading-strings  of  a  little  child], 

"Hos.    io :  2,  3.  "  II :  1-7- 

£7  lo:  j2  »»  Pendulum  movement. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  205 

I  was  to  them  as  they  that  take  off  the  yoke,  and  gently 

I  gave  them  meat.40 
To  Egypt  he  shall  return  —  or  the  Assyrian  shall  be  his 

king, 
For  to  return  unto  me  they  have  refused. 
The  sword  shall  rage  against  his  cities  and  consume  his 

bars, 
It  shall  devour  them  because  of  their  own  counsels. 
And  my  people  —  they  are  bent  on  turning  away  from  me ! 
Though  they  were  called  up  to  God,  not  one  would  lift 

himself! 

Their  stubbornness  only  makes  more  evident  the 

divine  compassion : 41 

How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim?    Let  thee  go,  Israel? 

At  last  —  far  off,  perhaps,  but  at  last  they  will 
repent.     Then  he  will  take  them  to  himself  again : 

They   shall   follow   Jehovah:    He   shall   roar   like   a   man 

[call   to   them   with   a  loud  voice   so   that   they  can 

hear  in  the  land  of  captivity]  ! 
When   he  roars,   the  children  shall   come  trembling   from 

the   West, 
They  shall  come  fluttering,  as  a  bird,  out  of  Egypt, 
As  a  dove,  out  of  Assyria.     And  I  will  bring  them  to  their 

own  houses, 
Is  the  utterance  of  Jehovah.42 

The  prophet  reviews  the  long-past  history  of 
his  people,43  culminating  in  apostasy  so  flagrant 
as  inevitably  to  induce,  not  only  national  destruc- 

40  Metaphor    changed;     the    thought     is    still     the    rescue     from 
Egypt,   where  they   had   been    as   dumb   driven   cattle. 
41  Hos.     n:  8.  "  12:  2  —  13:  3- 

42  1 1 :  10,    11. 


206         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

tion,  but  moral  death.44  Yet  the  hope  of  Hosea 
triumphed  over  despair,  for  did  not  he  know  the 
love  of  God,  a  love  stronger  than  death?  Yes, 
stronger  even  than  death :  this  last  revelation  of 
the  nature  of  God's  love  had  come  to  Hosea ;  the 
conviction  that  the  love  of  God  must  triumph 
even  over  the  grave.  Though  the  walls  of  Jeru- 
salem might  crumble,  and  the  fairest  of  Israel's 
warriors  lie  strewn  upon  the  ruins,  it  could  not 
be  that  they  whom  God  loved  were  finally  sepa- 
rated from  him.  So  rose  upon  his  mind  the 
vision  of  a  personal  immortality  —  the  first  inti- 
mation of  it  in  Israel's  history : 45 

I  will  ransom  them  from  the  power  of  Sheol :  from  death 

I  will  redeem  them. 
O  Death,  where  are   thy  plagues?     O  Sheol,  where's  thy 

destroying  power? 
Change  of  purpose  is  hid  from  mine  eyes.48 

**  13:  I.  3- 

"  13:  14- 

*•  Scholarship  has  but  one  voice  on  this  subject,  and  it  refuses 
to  this  passage  any  but  a  national  significance.  I  have  tried  hard 
to  accept  this  conclusion,  but  I  cannot,  for  to  me  it  appears  psy- 
chologically imperative  that  Hosea's  experience,  proving  to  him  not 
only  the  deathless  nature  of  love,  but  its  kinship  with  the  divine 
passion  for  man,  must  have  given  him  some  glimpse  of  its  per- 
sistence beyond  the  grave.  Unquestionably  it  was  generations  be- 
fore Israel  in  general  reached  a  conception  of  personal  immortality, 
based  upon  the  deathless  nature  of  love,  or  any  other  foundation. 
Nevertheless,  the  psychological  law  that  there  can  be  no  repent- 
ance where  there  is  no  hope  seems  to  me  to  require,  with  this 
prophecy  of  the  utter  destruction  of  the  nation  demanded  by  the 
depth  and  blackness  of  Israel's  sin,  precisely  that  glimmer  of 
eternal  hope  that  shines  through  this  fourteenth  verse,  and  no- 
where else  in  early  prophecy.  Only  this,  it  appears  to  me,  makes 
possible,  from  a  psychological  standpoint,  that  ultimate  repentance 
of  Israel  which  is  foreshadowed  in  the  promises  of  chap.    14. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE  207 

It  was  through  this  eternal  hope  that  it  be- 
came clear  to  Hosea  that,  though  captivity  was 
now  not  to  be  averted,  even  yet  there  was  hope 
in  repentance.  This  fair  prophetic  vision  of  the 
final  repentance  and  restoration  of  Israel  came, 
in  his  last  days,  to  bless  the  heart  of  the  man  who 
had  so  deeply  loved,  so  perfectly  forgiven.  Out 
of  the  furnace  of  his  grief  had  come  this  supreme 
recompense  —  the  consciousness  that  his  experi- 
ence had  been,  not  a  meaningless  affliction,  but  a 
parable  of  the  divine  love  —  the  revelation  that 
the  love  of  God  was  eternal,  and  could  never  be 
shaken  by  his  children's  sin.  The  prophecy 
closes  with  a  beautiful  dramatic  lyric,  in  which 
Israel,  Jehovah,  and  the  prophet  give  full  expres- 
sion to  this  new  revelation  of  the  eternal  love  of 
God.47 

[Prophet]     Turn  again,  Israel,  unto  Jehovah  thy  God, 

For  thou  hast  fallen  by  thine  own  iniquity. 

Take  with  you  words  and  turn  unto  Jehovah ; 

Say  unto  him  everything. 

[Israel]     Forgive  iniquity  and  accept  good  things ; 

And  we  will  render  the  fruit  of  our  lips. 

Assyria  cannot  save  us, 

Upon  horses  we  will  not  ride  [we  will  not  appeal  to  Egypt], 

And  we  will  not  say  any  more  "  our  god  " 

To  the  work  of  our  hands  [will  no  longer  be  idolaters]  ; 

—  Thou  by  whom  the  orphan  receives  compassion ! 

[Jehovah]     I    will   heal   their  apostasy, 

I   will   love  them  freely ; 

For  my  anger  hath  turned  from  him. 

4T  Hos.,  chap.    14. 


208         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

I  will  be  as  the  dew  to  Israel ; 

He  shall  bloom  as  the  wild  flower, 

And  strike  his  roots  like  Lebanon, 

His  shoots  shall  grow, 

And  his  majesty  shall  be  as  the  olive, 

And  he  shall  have  scent  like  Lebanon ; 

Those  who  abide  in  his  shadow  shall  return, 

They  shall  quicken  the  corn, 

And  bloom  like  the  vine, 

And  their  memory  shall  be  as  the  wine  of  Lebanon. 

[Israel]     What  have  I  to  do  any  more  with  idols? 

[Jehovah]     I  have  responded,  and  I  shall  regard  him. 

[Israel]     I  am  like  a  green   cypress    [not  a   fruit-bearing 

tree]. 
[Jehovah]     Of  me  is  thy  fruit  found. 
[Prophet]     Whoso  is  wise  let  him  understand  these  things; 
Understanding,  let  him  know  them : 
That  the  ways  of  Jehovah  are  upright, 
And    the    righteous    walk   therein, 
But  transgressors  stumble   therein.48 

V 

We  see  now  how  the  idea  of  the  marriage  re- 
lation between  God  and  Israel —  common,  indeed, 
in  all  Semitic  religions,  but  raised  into  the  ethi- 
cal sphere  by  the  prophets  of  Israel  alone  —  kept 
the  nation  pure  in  heart,  especially  from  this  time 
forward,  when  they  were  about  to  come  into  close 
relations  with  the  gross  sensuality  of  Assyria,  the 
subtle  licentiousness  of  Egypt,  the  foul  corrup- 
tion of  Rome.  Sexual  sin  was  not,  and  never 
has  been,  an  outstanding  sin  of  Israel  —  its  sig- 
nificance is  too  terrible  for  that.    The  very  vehe- 

4S  Professor    Briggs's    translation. 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE         209 

mence  of  prophetic  denunciation  goes  to  show 
that  the  sin  is  something-  unusual  —  abnormal. 
And  for  this  reason  the  biblical  writers  can  use  a 
plainness  of  speech  impossible  to  any  others.  We 
all  know  that  there  are  some  startlingly  frank 
passages  in  the  prophets.  Not  Maupassant  or 
Daudet,  not  the  later  novels  of  Meredith  and 
Hardy,  have  anything  like  the  realism  of  certain 
of  their  chapters ;  yet  these  we  need  not  fear  to 
give  to  our  sons  and  daughters  to  read,  while  we 
rightly  dread  the  influence  of  those  upon  the  im- 
mature minds  of  the  young,  however  good  the 
purpose  with  which  they  may  have  been  written. 
There  is  in  all  modern  literature  no  more  strik- 
ing lesson  in  sexual  morality  than  Flaubert's 
Madame  B ovary.  If  ever  a  novel  taught  the 
truth  that  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  that  novel 
teaches  it  —  teaches  it  without  one  gloss  or  thin- 
nest veil  over  the  hideous  naked  truth ;  teaches  it 
without  one  touch  of  pity  or  pathos  that  might 
allure  a  youth  to  try  for  himself  and  see  if  after 
all  things  are  as  bad  as  they  are  painted.  And 
yet  the  French  authorities  did  right  in  forbidding 
the  circulation  of  the  book;  for  with  all  Flau- 
bert's honesty  of  purpose,  his  whole-hearted  de- 
sire so  to  paint  that  sin  to  which  his  fellow- 
countrymen  are  most  addicted  that  it  should 
forevermore  be  loathsome  in  their  eyes,  he  had 
made  a  bad  book;  one  that  is  corrupting  by  its 


210         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

very  fidelity,  by  the  exquisite  art  and  grace  with 
which  he  has  known  how  to  be  true  to  the  grue- 
some reality. 

The  prophets  treat  of  the  same  subject,  with  a 
realism  to  which  Flaubert's  fidelity  to  truth  seems 
a  thin  veneer;  yet  they  are  safe  reading;  they 
arouse  not  one  false  emotion,  quicken  no  un- 
healthy susceptibility.  What  is  the  difference? 
What  can  it  be  but  this  (for  simply  to  say  it  is 
inspired  only  begs  the  question),  that  Flaubert 
has  seen  no  room  for  repentance?  And  to  paint 
sin  without  showing  that  it  may  be  repented  of 
is  immoral.  And  yet  from  the  point  of  view  of 
man  there  is  no  room  for  repentance  of  persistent 
sin  like  this;  it  destroys  the  very  faculty  of  re- 
pentance. Gomer  could  never  have  appreciated 
the  character  of  her  husband's  forgiving  love. 
But  Jehovah  is  God,  not  man.  In  relations  with 
him  repentance  is  forever  possible,  and  so  love, 
having  been  multiplied  into  infinity,  has  been 
raised  to  a  higher  power  than  it  could  else  have 
reached.  All  through  these  chapters  it  is  the 
relation  of  God  to  man  that  is  revealed  in  the 
terms  of  the  relation  between  man  and  woman ; 
and  so  the  very  words  have  been  stripped  of  all 
secondary  significance,  and  the  human  relation 
itself  translated  into  terms  of  the  divine.  And 
through  this  translation  it  came  to  pass  that  not 
only  under  the  old  dispensation,  and  to  the  pure- 


A  PARABLE  OF  DIVINE  LOVE         211 

hearted  Hebrew,  God  could  reveal  his  love  in  a 
parable  of  human  experience,  but  that  under  the 
new  dispensation,  and  to  sensuous  Greeks  and 
sensual  orientals,  the  inspired  apostle  —  himself 
probably  unmarried  —  writing  to  the  people  of 
Ephesus49  could  picture  the  love  of  Christ  for 
his  church  in  words  which  give  the  true  meaning 
of  marriage;  words  whose  meaning  has  not  yet 
been  fathomed  by  Christian  civilization,  which 
sees  in  man,  not  the  savior,  but  the  destroyer  of 
woman. 

For  thousands  of  years  the  love  of  God  has 
been  the  blessed  certainty  of  those  who  know 
him ;  but  it  is  not  a  mere  happening  that  the  reve- 
lation of  it  came  by  way  of  the  experiences  of 
married  life.  The  trouble  with  much  of  present- 
day  literature,  and  the  darkest  aspect  of  present- 
day  life,  is  that  men  and  women  forget  this  truth 
of  the  typical  sacredness  of  wedded  love.  When 
this  is  generally  realized,  the  world  will  be  a 
better  place.  It  is  a  better  place  already  for 
those  who  know  this  sacred  secret,  discovered  in 
the  agony  of  a  passion  in  which  love  triumphed 
over  wrong  and  shame.  The  world  became  a 
holier  and  a  more  intelligible  place,  in  the  day 
when  its  darkest  mystery  thus  found  its  key. 

■  Eph.   s :  22-280. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SECULAR  FAITH 

I 

In  this  individualistic  age  of  ours  it  requires 
some  mental  detachment  to  realize  that  until  a 
comparatively  late  period  in  the  world's  life  the 
individual  was  nothing;  the  family,  the  gens,  the 
clan,  was  everything.  Nature,  careless  of  the 
single  life,  seems  to  be  imitated  in  the  patriarchal 
family  of  the  East,  the  village  community  of 
India,  the  gentile  groups  of  Rome,  in  which  the 
unit  of  society  was  found.  So  in  the  early  rec- 
ords of  Israel  the  tribe  is  the  unit.  We  read  in 
the  opening  of  the  book  of  Judges  how  "  Judah 
said  to  Simeon  his  brother,  '  Come  up  with  me 
into  my  lot  that  we  may  fight  against  the  Ca- 
naanites,  and  I  likewise  will  go  with  thee  into  thy 
lot ! '  "  1  "  Machir,  the  son  of  Manasseh,"  we  are 
told,  "  was  the  father  of  Gilead  "  2 —  the  vast 
grazing  district  east  of  Jordan.  More  distinctly, 
perhaps,  the  family  was  the  unit,  and  therefore 
Achan's  punishment3  and  the  hanging  of  Saul's 

1  Judg.    1:3.  2  Josh.  17:1.  8Josh.    7:24,    25. 

212 


SECULAR  FAITH  213 

descendants  for  his  sin  4  gave  no  offense  to  the 
moral  sense  of  the  community,  but  rather  satisfied 
it.  The  only  immortality  that  the  early  Israelite 
dreamed  of  was  the  perpetuity  of  Israel;  his  high- 
est personal  aspiration  for  the  future  that  his 
family  might  never  die  out. 

This  indifference  to  the  individual  the  Hebrews 
shared  with  all  peoples  of  that  time;  but  it  is 
very  interesting  to  discover  that  with  Israel  the 
feeling  was  based  upon  the  instinctive  perception 
of  the  importance  of  his  race  —  that  race  in 
which  all  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed ; 
upon  a  religious  idea,  therefore.  This  becomes 
strikingly  clear  when  we  perceive  that,  after  all, 
there  was  from  a  very  early  time  among  the 
Hebrews  what  there  was  not  among  other  peo- 
ples —  a  strong  sense  of  individuality.  In  the 
very  heart  of  the  community  there  was  a  class  — 
"  the  Wise,"  as  they  are  called,  "  the  Sages  " — 
whose  influence  was  exceedingly  strong,  and  al- 
ways tended  to  the  development  of  the  idea  of 
individuality.  These  sages  were  not  for  a  long 
time  the  writers  of  books.  Their  teachings  re- 
mained in  the  folklore  stage  long  after  the  early 
prophets  had  begun  to  commit  the  annals  of  the 
nation  to  writing;  but  they  finally  emerged  in 
book  form  5  in  a  series  of  works  called  the  "  Wis- 
dom Literature,"  of  which  the  Apocrypha  give 

*  2    Sam.    21:1-9.  'Probably   after   iL;  captivity. 


214  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

numerous  examples,  but  of  which  in  the  canon- 
ical Scriptures  Job,  Proverbs,  and  Ecclesiastes 
are  the  most  important.  All  these  are  decidedly 
individualistic.  Job  is  a  philosophical  work  of 
the  very  highest  spiritual  significance,  and  must 
be  studied  by  itself.  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes, 
which  fall  under  our  present  title,  are  works  of 
practical  philosophy,  the  thoughts  of  earnest  and 
observant  men  on  the  things  of  this  life. 

The  book  of  Proverbs  makes  no  attempt  to 
combine  these  thoughts  into  a  system ;  it  remains 
a  series  of  disconnected  observations.  Yet  one 
thing  is  very  striking:  that  at  this  relatively 
early  period  the  Hebrew  sages  had  been  vaguely 
impressed  by  that  correlation  of  forces  which 
modern  philosophers  call  "  the  conservation  of 
energy,"  but  which  to  the  crude  minds  of  that 
time  was  simply  a  suggestion  of  what  we  may 
call  "  natural  law."  Not  that  they  would  have 
so  entitled  it;  the  thought  as  thus  formulated  is 
foreign  to  the  concrete  Hebrew  mind.6  They 
made  no  attempt  to  analyze  it,  but  they  did  per- 
sonify it  under  the  name  "  Wisdom,"  personifi- 
cation being  the  only  way  in  which,  as  we  have 

•  Professor  Toy  speaks  of  the  conception  of  the  world  as  a 
physical  and  moral  cosmos  or  orderly  arrangement,  as  found  in 
general  in  Gen.,  chap,  i;  Ps.  104,  but  far  more  distinctly  in 
Prov.,  chap.  8.  Jastrow  (Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p. 
433)  refers  to  the  deluge  story  in  Genesis,  which  "ends  with  the 
promulgation   of    the   fixed   laws   of   the   universe." 


SECULAR  FAITH  21 5 

already  seen,  the  Hebrew  mind  could  deal  with 
abstract  thought. 

But  though  the  writers  of  Proverbs  dimly  saw 
the  universe  as  a  whole,  they  did  not  so  see  life. 
To  the  unphilosophic  mind,  as  to  the  child,  life 
remains  a  mere  series  of  events  long  after  he  has 
come  to  perceive  the  link  between  physical  things. 
Philosophically  speaking,  Ecclesiastes  is  a  long 
way  in  advance  of  Proverbs,  because  it  reflects 
on  life  as  a  whole,  not  as  a  series  of  experiences. 
It  attempts  to  read  the  riddle  of  existence;  and 
it  is  a  striking  fact  that  this  sum  of  forces,  this 
law  of  events,  which  we  find  the  earlier  writers 
of  the  book  of  Proverbs  calling  "  Wisdom,"  is 
precisely  the  "  All "  which  the  later  writer  of 
Ecclesiastes  pronounces  to  be  "  Vanity."  7  And 
this  is  entirely  natural.  When  men  begin  to  re- 
flect deeply  on  life,  the  natural  first  result  is  pes- 
simism, as  such  poets  as  Tennyson  and  Brown- 

T  The  view  of  natural  law  here  expressed  has  been  criticised 
on  the  ground  that  the  very  suggestion  of  natural  law  is  foreign 
to  the  Hebrew  mind.  As  a  philosophic  tenet,  no  doubt,  but  not  as 
a  poetic  or,  more  properly,  religious  interpretation  of  things.  I 
find  my  view  at  least  suggested  by  such  scholars  as  Wildbaer,  who 
finds  Koheleth  tormented  with  the  question:  Is  law  stronger  than 
God?  as  Bradley,  who  speaks  of  the  law  of  order  and  recurrence 
as  leaving  in  Koheleth's  mind  no  room  for  the  development  of 
human  character;  as  Davidson,  who  sees  Koheleth  oppressed  by 
the  fixed  and  inexorable  order  of  things,  and  who  concludes  that 
his  "  Vanity  "  means  that  God  has  hemmed  man  in,  that  things 
are  inevitable.  All  this,  to  my  mind,  bears  out  my  conviction  that 
Koheleth,  like  the  writer  of  the  Wisdom  sonnet  in  Proverbs,  had 
a  sense  of  natural  law,  but,  unlike  that  writer,  found  it  oppressive 
and  discouraging.  Wright  finds  the  uniformity  of  natural  law 
the  uppermost  fact  in  his  mind. 


Jl6         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

ing  make  very  clear.  Proverbs  is  practical;  it 
asks :  What  is  good  —  that  is,  right  —  for  me  ? 
Ecclesiastes  is  theoretical;  it  asks:  What  is  the 
chief  good?  Both  these  questions,  however,  the 
practical  and  the  theoretical,  are  questions  of 
practical  philosophy.  Both  deal  with  the  problem 
of  daily  life.  In  other  words,  both  are  questions 
of  "  secular  faith." 

This  title  fits  the  subject,  however,  only  when 
it  is  remembered  that  the  distinction  usually  made 
between  the  sacred  and  the  secular  was  wholly 
unknown  to  the  sons  of  Israel.  The  distinction 
which  Israel  made  was  not  between  the  sacred 
and  the  secular,  but  between  the  national  and  the 
individual.  To  prophets  and  poets,  who  occupied 
themselves  with  heavenly  things,  the  nation  was 
the  supreme  concern,  because  —  far  more  closely 
than  they  dreamed  —  in  the  nation  Israel  was 
bound  up  the  hope  of  the  world.  To  the  Wise, 
who  occupied  themselves  with  earthly  things,  the 
individual  was  important,  because  earthly  mat- 
ters are  matters  of  individual  interest.  But  to 
neither  prophet  nor  sage  would  the  thought  have 
occurred  to  divorce  the  earthly  from  the  heaven- 
ly. Human  relationships  and  duties  were  to  therrr 
so  closely  based  upon  divine  reality  that  their 
worldly  philosophy,  like  their  common  life,  was 
in  the  nature  of  things  religious.  God  was  with 
them  in  their  sowing  and  reaping,  their  sorrow 


SECULAR  FAITH  217 

and  joy.  Their  rules  of  husbandry  were  his 
teaching-,  their  harvest  gladness  was  his  feast, 
the  thunderstorm  was  his  voice.  The  story  of 
Israel's  wars  was  the  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Je- 
hovah, and  as  it  was  his  armies  that  went  forth 
to  battle,  so  it  was  his  oracle  that  gave  them 
their  common  law. 

All  this  was  because  God,  being  the  source  of 
unity,  was  the  foundation  of  all  things.  The 
teachings  of  the  Wise,  their  maxims  of  worldly 
morality,  stand  on  this  basis  of  divine  reality. 
These  teachings  are  the  thought  of  man  dealing 
with  the  concerns  of  man,  but  they  are  always 
the  thought  of  man  who  not  only  has  his  face 
turned  toward  God,  but  to  whom  God  is  the  most 
important  fact  in  life.  The  most  despairing  ut- 
terances of  the  Preacher  and  the  shrewdest  max- 
ims of  the  book  of  Proverbs  have  alike  this  con- 
sciousness of  divine  reality;  with  them  the 
secular  stands  upon  the  sacred,  as  its  basis,  and 
can  have  no  other  ground  for  being.  Just  as  all 
human  relationships  grow  out  of  the  fact  of  the 
fatherhood  of  God,  the  higher  unity  in  which  all 
things  meet,  so  all  human  morality,  all  human 
duties  and  problems,  find  also  their  unity  in  the 
relation  all  men  bear  to  God. 

Hebrew  wisdom,  then,  had  to  do  with  practical 
matters  of  conduct  between  man  and  man,  with 
the  ordering  of  individual  and  social  life;  but  it 


2l8         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

did  not  particularly  concern  itself  with  matters 
between  man  and  God.  The  book  of  Proverbs 
has  no  concern  with  ceremonial  worship,  though 
incidentally  it  takes  it  for  granted ; 8  it  utters  no 
warnings  against  the  sin  of  idolatry,  and  it  never 
rests  its  dicta  upon  the  solemn  prophetic  author- 
ity :  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  Proverbs  is  per- 
haps most  unlike  prophecy  in  drawing  no  lessons 
from  the  past.  Neither  the  history  of  Israel  nor 
the  Mosaic  law  is  once  mentioned,  and  there  is 
not  the  slightest  reference  to  the  prophetic  teach- 
ings, although  the  importance  of  prophecy  is  dis- 
tinctly taught :  "  Where  there  is  no  vision  the 
people  perish !  "  9 

In  one  striking  respect  the  wisdom  of  the  He- 
brews found  a  higher  level  than  human  wisdom 
had  elsewhere  found:  it  had  no  place  for  agnos- 
ticism. To  the  Hebrew  sage  the  search  after 
wisdom  was  sure  to  be  rewarded  with  success; 
it  was  possible  for  man  to  know :  it  was  impos- 
sible that  the  honest  seeker  should  fail  to  find  the 
ultimate  wisdom;  that  is,  God.  In  the  highest 
sense,  then,  though  not  to  the  consciousness  of 
every  wise  man,  wisdom  was  the  divine  philoso- 
phy. The  Hebrew  people  were  an  inspired  peo- 
ple; in  a  very  true  sense  God  was  in  all  their 
thoughts,  and  this  fact  has  put  an  ineffaceable 
seal  upon  all  their  secular  —  that  is,  their  indi- 

•  Prov.    7:14;    15:8;   21:27.  •  Prov.   29:18. 


SECULAR  FAITH  219 

vidualistic,  as  well  as  their  sacred  —  that  is,  their 
national  —  writings. 

Ill 
The  secret  of  the  Hebrew  wisdom  is  given  in 
the  motto  which  we  find  on  the  title-page  of  the 
book  of  Proverbs : 

The    fear    of    Jehovah    is    the    beginning    of    knowledge: 
But  the  foolish  despise  wisdom  and  instruction.10 

This  impressive  truth  may  first  have  been  for- 
mulated by  the  writer  of  this  passage;  but  it  is 
a  universal  truth.  There  has  been  no  scientist 
or  philosopher  of  note,  since  science  and  philoso- 
phy were,  of  whom  reverence  has  not  been  a 
distinguishing  —  nay.  a  fundamental  —  charac- 
teristic. If  "  the  undevout  astronomer  is  mad," 
the  irreverent  scientist  is  an  intellectual  suicide. 
It  is  this  implicit  sense  of  reverence  that  raises 
above  utilitarianism  those  precepts  of  the  book 
of  Proverbs  which  appear  to  be  most  worldly 
wise. 

The  moral  value  of  this  book  is  very  great. 
Its  morality  is  not  very  lofty,  its  motives  are 
not  the  noblest ;  they  are  mainly  prudential.  "  Be 
thou  in  the  fear  of  Jehovah  all  the  day  long ;  for 
surely  there  is  a  reward."  "  But  this  is  because 
the  book  is  distinctly  meant  to  be  a  practical 
work.    It  is  utilitarian  in  contrast  with  the  ideal- 

l0Prov.    1:7.  "23:  17,   18. 


220  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

istic  teachings  of  the  prophets,  but  its  utilitarian- 
ism is  not  self-centered.  Its  aim  was  to  raise  the 
tone  of  national  morality.  The  only  possible 
appeal  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  nation,  at  that 
period  (we  may  almost  say,  of  any  nation,  at 
any  period)  was  to  show  by  concrete  examples 
the  wisdom  of  morality. 

Without  question  this  book  teaches  that  good- 
ness is  rewarded  with  worldly  prosperity,  and 
wickedness  punished  in  this  world.  This  was  the 
firm  belief  of  Israel,  notwithstanding  some  facts 
which  tended  to  contradict  it.  These  facts 
caused  great  perplexity,  but  they  did  not  suffice, 
in  the  early  days,  to  shake  the  general  conviction. 
When  these  proverbs  first  became  current,  this 
was  the  common  belief;  yet  there  is  nothing  igno- 
ble in  the  utilitarianism  of  Proverbs.  Like  our 
own  maxim,  "  Honesty  is  the  best  policy,"  it  is 
grounded  in  a  high  moral  truth. 

Implicitly,  if  not  explicitly,  Proverbs  tests  con- 
duct by  the  highest  standards : 

A  false  balance  is  an  abomination  to  Jehovah, 
But  they  that  deal  truly  are  his  delight.12 

This  implicit  recognition  of  the  only  true  ethi- 
cal standard  gives  this  book  great  practical  value. 

Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation, 

But  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people.13 

12  ii :  i.  ™  14:  34- 


SECULAR  FAITH  221 

It  has  been  said  that  one  reason  for  the  ster- 
ling if  shrewd  integrity  for  which  the  Scottish 
people  have  long  been  famous,  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  for  many  generations  the  book  of  Proverbs 
was  the  standard  school  reader. 

The  books  of  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes  suffer 
more  than  any  other  parts  of  the  Bible  by  our 
present  chapter  and  verse  divisions,  and  by  the 
lack  of  titles.  It  is  possible  so  to  separate  and 
recombine  the  passages  in  both  these  books  as  to 
bring  out  a  surprising  degree  of  harmony  and 
connection.  The  most  obvious  grouping  is  into 
books,  of  which  Proverbs  has  five.  All  except 
the  first  have  titles,  but  as  these  are  printed  right 
along  with  what  follows,  they  are  not  generally 
noticed.  The  general  title  of  the  volume  is  very 
elaborate,  as  has  been  shown  in  several  recent 
works.  Perhaps  the  volume  "  Proverbs "  in 
Professor  Moulton's  Modern  Readers'  Bible  is 
the  most  readily  accessible.  The  title  is  there 
shown  to  bear  strong  resemblance  to  the  titles  of 
many  English  books  of  the  age  of  Milton  or 
Addison,  or  of  some  modern  novels  : 

THE  PROVERBS  OF  SOLOMON. 

The  Son   of  David,   King  of  Israel. 

To  know  Wisdom  and  Instruction : 
To  discern  the  Words  of  Understanding: 
To  receive  instruction  in  Wise  Dealing: 


222  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

In  Righteousness  and  Judgment  and  Equity: 

To  give  Subtilty  to  the  Simple: 

To  the  Young  Man   Knowledge  and  Discretion: 

That  the  Wise  Man  may  hear  and  increase  in  Learning: 

And    that   the    Man    of    Understanding   may    attain    unto 

Sound  Counsels : 

To  Understand  a  Proverb  and  a  Figure: 

The  Words  of  the  Wise 

And   their  Dark  Sayings. 

The  Fear  of   the  Lord  is   the  beginning  of  Knowledge: 
But  the  Foolish  despise  Wisdom  and  Instruction.1* 

The  first  of  the  five  books  of  which  Proverbs 
is  formed,  chaps.  1-9,  is  a  little  Book  of  Sonnets, 
more  elaborate  in  structure  and  more  advanced 
in  thought  than  any  other  part  of  the  book  of 
Proverbs ;  and  for  these  reasons  it  is  believed  to 
have  been  written  last.  Its  subject,  the  praise  of 
wisdom,  is  the  obvious  reason  why  it  is  placed 
at  the  beginning  of  the  first  collection  of  Wisdom 
books.  Its  contents  are  not  sonnets  in  the  Italian 
or  the  English  sense  of  a  rhymed  composition 
of  fourteen  lines.  Their  structure  is  far  more 
free  than  that,  as  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
chaps.  2  and  5  are  single  sonnets,  while  other 
chapters  contain  three  or  four  each.  Yet  they 
are  evidently  sonnets,  since  each  contains  a  single 
scheme  of  thought,  and  this  is  the  essential  fact 
in  a  sonnet.  Some  of  the  shorter  sonnets  are 
exquisite  in  form;  for  instance,  the  one  begin- 
ning, "  Go  to  the  ant,  thou  sluggard."     All  of 

"  1 :  1-7. 


SECULAR  FAITH  223 

them  are  very  elaborate,  including  all  those  forms 
of  parallelism  which  characterize  Hebrew  poetry. 
The  description  of  Wisdom  in  chap.  8  is  prob- 
ably the  most  daring  and  sublime  personification 
in  all  literature,  and  it  is  here  that  we  find  the 
vague  recognition  of  natural  law  already  alluded 
to.  It  speaks  in  the  person  of  the  heavenly  Wis- 
dom : 15 

I  was  set  up  from  everlasting,  from  the  beginning, 
Or  ever  the  earth  was. 

When  there  were  no  depths,  I  was  brought  forth. 
When   there   were  no   fountains   abounding   with   water. 

Before  the  mountains  were  settled, 
Before  the  hills,  was  I  brought  into  being; 

While  as  yet  he  (Jehovah)  had  not  made  the  earth, 
Nor  the  fields, 
Nor  the  beginning  of  the  dust  of  the  world. 

When  he  established  the  heavens,  I  was  there ; 

When  he  set  a  circle  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,16 

When  he  made  the  skies  above, 

When  the  fountains  of  the  deep  became  strong: 

When  he  gave  to  the  sea  its  bound, 

That  the  waters  should  not  transgress  his  commandment : 

When  he  marked  out  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 
Then  I  was  by  him 
As  a  master-workman, 

15  Even  a  superficial  reading  shows  how  impossible  it  is  that 
this  should  have  been  a  prophecy  of  Christ,  as  is  generally  taught. 
Wisdom  is  here  the  creature,  not  the  child,  of  God;  "brought  into 
being,"  not  begotten;  anterior  to  creation  and  an  instrument  in 
creation    (vss.   29,   30). 

18  The  old  cosmological  idea  that  the  earth  was  a  flat  disk, 
the  ocean  surrounding  the  land,  and  being  itself  surrounded  by  a 
circular   rim   to   keep   it   from   running   off. 


224  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

And  I   was   daily  his   delight ; 

Sporting  always  before  him, 

Sporting  in  his  habitable  earth; 

And  my  delight  was  with  the  sons  of  men.17 

The  joy  of  the  writer  in  this  newly  found 
truth  of  natural  law  is  as  interesting  as  it  is 
naive. 

Chap.  10  begins  with  the  words  "The  Prov- 
erbs of  Solomon."  Evidently  this  is  a  title,  and 
it  shows  that  these  chapters  were  once  a  separate 
book. 

This  Book  II  consists  entirely  of  couplets  as 
simple  in  form  as  the  sonnets  of  Book  I  are  elab- 
orate, for  which  reason  it  is  believed  by  some  to 
be  the  oldest  part  of  the  book  of  Proverbs.  It  is 
largely  composed  of  old  folklore  —  popular  prov- 
erbs and  maxims,  such  as  every  nation  has ;  not 
given  in  their  original  form,  however,  but  worked 
over  into  poetic  couplets,  interspersed  with  the 
Wise  Man's  own  personal  observations  thrown 
into  the  same  form. 

At  22\  17-21  is  found  a  new  heading,  showing 
that  here  we  have  another  collection,  once  issued 
by  itself.  This  heading  is  long  and  elaborate 
like  that  of  Book  I.  "  The  Words  of  the  Wise," 
in  vs.  17,  may  be  taken  as  a  summary  of  the 
whole.  Vs.  20,  which  is  a  part  of  the  title,  indi- 
cates that  it  may  be  considered  as  an  epistle. 

17  Prov.    8:  23—31. 


SECULAR  FAITH  225 

To  this  epistle  someone  has  added  a  postscript 
of  twelve  verses  at  24:23,  beginning  with, 
"  These  also  are  of  the  Wise."  Both  epistle  and 
postscript  differ  from  the  preceding  book  in  con- 
sisting, not  of  simple  couplet  proverbs,  but  of 
epigrams  of  four  or  more  lines  interspersed  with 
a  few  couplet  proverbs ;  each  part,  epistle  and 
postscript,  has  one  sonnet.  In  the  epistle  occurs 
the  well-known  "  Riddle  Sonnet  on  Intemper- 
ance," "  The  Mirror  for  Drunkards,"  18  be- 
ginning with  a  sarcastic  and  extremely  realistic 
imitation  of  the  exclamations  of  the  drunkard : 

Who  hath  oif 

Who  hath  aboi? 

Who  hath  contentions? 

Who    hath   complainings? 

In  the  postscript  is  the  very  artistic  sonnet  on 
the  "  Field  of  the  Slothful."  10 

A  fourth  book  begins  at  chap.  25,  of  which  the 
first  verse  is  evidently  a  title :  "  The  Proverbs 
of  Solomon  Which  the  Men  of  Hezekiah  Copied 
Out."  This  gives  itself  out,  then,  as  a  later  col- 
lection than  Book  II,  but  it  resembles  that  much 
more  than  it  resembles  any  other  of  the  five 
books  of  Proverbs.  Like  that,  it  consists  mainly 
of  two-lined  proverbs,  though  these  are  inter- 
spersed with  triplets  and  epigrams.  The  chief 
difference  between   them   is   a   most   interesting 

18  23  =29-35.  10  24: 30-3-1 


226         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

one  from  a  literary  point  of  view,  for  it  shows 
perhaps  the  earliest  attempt  at  editing;  many  of 
the  proverbs  of  the  second  collection  being  in 
clusters  bearing  on  a  single  subject.  For  exam- 
ple, the  first  four  proverbs  20  are  on  the  charac- 
teristics of  kings ;  in  the  next  chapter  is  a  group 
of  four  on  the  sluggard.21  There  are  seven  on 
social  pests ; 22  there  is  a  cluster  of  nine  proverbs 
of  various  lengths  on  fools.23  There  is  also  an 
exquisite  little  "  Folk-Song  of  Good  Husbandry," 
which  in  feeling  for  nature,  though  not  in  poetic 
beauty,  reminds  us  of  the  "  Spring  Song "  in 
Canticles.24 

Be  thou  diligent  to  know  the  state  of  thy  flocks, 
And  look  well  to  thy  herds ; 
For  riches  are  not  for  ever ; 
And  doth  the  crown  endure  unto  all  generations? 
The  hay  is  carried, 
And  the  tender  grass  sheweth  itself 
And   the   herbs  of  the  mountains  are   gathered   in. 
The  lambs  are  for  thy  clothing, 
And  the  goats  are  the  price  of  the  field : 
And  there  will  be  goat's  milk  enough  for  thy  food, 
For  the  food  of  thy  household ; 
And  maintenance  for  thy  maidens. 

But,    in   the  main,   this   book,   like  the  other, 
consists  of  couplets  —  there  are  nearly  ninety. 
The  fifth  and  last  book  includes  a  number  of 


"25: 

1-7- 

23  26:  1-12. 

»26: 

13-16. 

24  27:  23,  27. 

22  25: 

17-2S. 

SECULAR  FAITH  227 

titles,  and  is  evidently  a  collection  of  miscellany ; 
nothing  in  this  collection  is  attributed  to  Solo- 
mon. There  is  a  group  of  sonnets,  epigrams, 
and  riddles,  which,  we  are  told,  are  the  sayings 
of  Agur;25  there  is  the  "Oracle  of  Lemuel's 
Mother,"  26  and  there  is  the  anonymous  "  Mirror 
for  Wives,"  27  which  in  the  Hebrew  is  an  acrostic 
poem. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  agnosticism  made  in  the  Wisdom  lit- 
erature is  found  in  the  sayings  of  Agur,  in  a 
poem  on  the  "  Unsearchableness  of  God."  28 

Its  poetic  structure  is  interesting;  the  first 
strophe  has  three  short  lines  followed  by  four 
long  ones,  the  second  strophe  reverses  the  order, 
having  four  long  lines  followed  by  three  short 
ones: 

THE  UNSEARCHABLENESS  OF  GOD 
A   Sonnet 

I  have  wearied  myself,  O  God, 

I  have  wearied  myself,  O  God, 

And  am   consumed : 
For  I  am  more  brutish  than  any  man, 
And  have  not  the  understanding  of  a  man : 
And   I    have   not  learned   wisdom, 
Neither  have  I  the  knowledge  of  the  Holy  One. 

25  Chap.  30. 
M  31 :  1-9. 
27  31 :  10-31. 

2s3o:  ifc-4.  The  first  three  lines  of  the  following  sonnet  follow 
an  amended  reading  of  the  second  clause  of  vs.   i. 


228         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Who  hath  ascended  up  into  heaven,  and  descended  ? 29 
Who  hath  gathered  the  wind  in  his  fists? 
Who  hath  bound  the  waters  in  his  garment? 
Who  hath  established  all  the  ends  of  the  earth? 

What  is  his  name, 

And  what  is  his  son's  name, 

If  thou  knowest? 

To  this  agnostic  utterance,  however,  Agur  re- 
plies by  an  epigram  that  God  may  be  found  ex- 
perimentally :  "  He  is  a  shield  to  those  who  trust 
in  him."  30  Agnosticism  never  has  the  last  word 
in  the  Wisdom  literature. 

Though  even  a  general  classification  like  this 
lends  considerable  literary  interest  to  the  book 
of  Proverbs,  much  of  the  book  still  appears  frag- 
mentary and  illogical,  and  the  mind  soon  wearies 
in  reading  it.  This,  indeed,  is  the  case  in  reading 
a  succession  of  short  pieces  of  any  kind.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  read  very  many  even  of  the 
most  beautiful  lyrics  at  a  sitting.  This,  how- 
ever, appears  to  be  a  characteristic  of  the  western 
mind.  We  find  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
oriental  mind  feels  the  necessity  of  logical  se- 
quence. Not  merely  the  book  of  Proverbs,  but 
the  greater  portion  of  the  Koran  and  whole  vol- 
umes of  Arabian  lore,  consist  of  short  sentences 
having  no  logical  relation  to  one  another.  There 
is  a  bond  of  unity,  but  it  usually  consists  less  in 
the  thought  than  in  the  form.     A  single  word 

29  Christ    referred   to   this   in    his   conversation   with    Nicodemus. 
""Vs.    3. 


SECULAR  FAITH  229 

occurring  in  several  sentences,  like  the  group  of 
proverbs  on  the  king  or  on  the  fool,  in  the  twenty- 
fifth  chapter  of  Proverbs,  is  sufficient  reason  for 
their  being  placed  together;  or  they  are  grouped 
together  simply  because  they  begin  with  the  same 
letter,  or  with  letters  which  follow  in  alphabetical 
order,  like  the  acrostic  psalms,  or  the  "  Mirror 
for  Wives,"  in  the  last  chapter  of  Proverbs. 

Putting  ourselves,  so  far  as  we  are  able,  into 
the  mental  attitude  of  the  oriental,  we  find  that 
the  book  of  Proverbs  has  a  very  true  unity,  and 
that  this  unity  is  preserved  in  a  very  artistic  way 
under  forms  of  great  variety,  and  in  a  scope 
which,  though  restricted  to  subjects  of  practical 
interest,  is  enormously  wide.  What  that  unity 
is  we  have  already  seen  —  it  is  found  in  the  ref- 
erence, tacit  or  open,  of  all  moral  judgments  to 
God.  The  title-page  of  the  whole  book  an- 
nounces that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  very 
beginning,  the  basis,  of  wisdom. 

This  God-consciousness  is  always  latent.  It 
is  not  always  put  into  words.  Yet  there  are 
many  places  where  it  is  frankly  confessed: 

The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  a  fountain  of  life, 
To  depart  from  the  snares  of  death.31 

There  is  a  firm  and  unalterable  faith  that  the 
world  is  governed  justly: 


JJO         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

The  way  of  the  Lord  is  a  stronghold  to  the  upright, 
But  it  is  a  destruction  to  the  workers  of  iniquity.3- 

There  is  a  deep  sense  of  the  omnipotence  of 
God: 

The  king's  heart  is  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord  as  the  water- 
courses, 
He   turneth  it  wheresoever  he  will.33 

Like  the  early  prophets,  the  early  Wise  Men 
saw  the  deep  truth  of  the  absolute  sovereignty 
.of  God,  and  prophets  and  sages  were  equally  un- 
able to  apprehend  the  free  will  of  man. 

The  Lord  hath  made  everything  for  its  own  end, 
Yea,  even  the  wicked  for  the  day  of  evil,34 

is  the  proverbial  form  of  the  prophetic  "  I  make 
peace  and  create  evil." 

Social  duty  stands  on  a  religious  basis : 

He  that  is  slack  in  his  work 
But  he  that  hath  mercy  on  the  needy  honoreth  him.35 

The  duty  of  honest  labor  is  strongly  felt: 

He  that  is  slack  in  his  work 

Is  brother  to  him  that  is  a  destroyer.36 

Here  the  economic  importance  of  diligence  ap- 
pears. The  sense  of  relative  duty  in  economic 
affairs  is  often  found : 

3-  ro :  29. 

33  21:  1.  A  figure  drawn  from  the  irrigation  practiced  in  gar- 
den  culture.     Cf.   Ps.    1:3;   Jer.   31:  12. 

34  Prov.    16:  4-  30  18:  9. 
55  14:  3»- 


SECULAR  FAITH  231 

"  Bad,  bad,"  saith  the  buyer, 
But  when  he  is  gone  his  way  then  he  boasteth.37 

There  is  a  profound  insight  into  the  difference 
between  false  and  true  economy : 

There  is  that  maketh  himself  rich  yet  hath  nothing: 
There  is  that  maketh  himself  poor  yet  hath  great  wealth ; 

and 

There  is  that  scattcreth  and  increaseth  yet  more, 
There  is  that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet, 
But  it  tendeth  to  want.38 

This,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  basis  of 
old  Honest's  riddle  in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress: 

There  was  a  man,  though  some  did  count  him  mad, 
The  more  he  cast  away  the  more  he  had. 

To  which  Gaius,  the  host,  found  the  answer : 

He  that  bestows  his  goods  upon  the  poor, 
Shall  have  as  much  again,  and  ten  times  more. 

The  high  value  set  upon  riches  is  chiefly  be- 
cause they  are  a  token  of  the  peculiar  favor  of 
God: 

The   blessing  of  the  Lord   it  maketh   rich, 
And  toil  addeth  knowledge  thereto.39 

This  view,  that  prosperity  is  the  sure  reward 
of  the  righteous,  is  so  firmly  fixed  that  it  is  all 
the  more  impressive  to  find  wealth  so  clearly  sub- 
ordinated to  right  conduct: 

87  20-   ,4.  3°  IO:  22. 

»   Ij:  7;      Ii:   24. 


2$2         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Treasures  of  riches  profit  nothing, 

But    righteousness   delivereth    from   death, 

and 

Better  is  the  poor  that  walketh  in  his  integrity, 

Than  he  that  is  perverse  in  his  way  though  he  be  rich.40 

This  sentiment  occurs  repeatedly. 

These  books  give  a  very  valuable  insight  into 
the  domestic  life  of  the  time  —  the  filial  piety, 
the  sense  of  parental  responsibility,  the  confi- 
dence between  husband  and  wife,  the  relations  of 
confidence  between  master  and  slave,  the  rever- 
ence paid  to  old  age: 

The  glory  of  young  men  is  their  strength, 
And  the  beauty  of  old  men  is  the  hoary  head.41 

The  very  first  proverb  in  the  earliest  collection 
brings  out  a  clear  view  of  family  relationships : 

A  wise  son  maketh  a  glad  father, 

But  a  foolish  son  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother.42 

That  the  mother  should  be  thus  put  on  the 
same  plane  with  the  father  as  concerned  in  the 
conduct  and  character  of  the  son  is  very  impres- 
sive. The  testimony  of  the  book  to  the  status 
of  woman  is  particularly  important  in  view  of 
present-day  theories  of  social  evolution;  the 
mother  is  everywhere  joined  with  the  father  as 

*°  10:  2;   28:  6.  ■  10:  1. 

M  20:  29. 


SECULAR  FAITH  233 

the  equal  claimant  upon  the  reverence  and  esteem 
of  the  child : 

Let  thy  father  and  mother  be  glad, 
And  let  her  that  bare  thee  rejoice.43 

As  to  the  relations  between  husband  and  wife, 
we  find  everywhere  the  highest  possible  testimony 
to  the  exalted  ideal  prevalent : 

Whoso  findeth  a  wife  findeth  a  good  thing, 
And  obtaineth   favor  of  the   Lord. 

House  and  riches  are  an  inheritance  from  the  fathers, 
But  a  prudent  wife  is  from  the   Lord.44 

Yet  it  is  true  that  there  is  much  in  this  book 
of  the  "  strange  woman,"  of  the  contentious, 
noisy,  quarrelsome  woman ;  so  much  so  as  to 
lead  some  to  think  that  the  standard  of  woman- 
hood in  Israel  must  have  been  very  low.  But  in 
truth  those  warnings  show  a  very  high  apprecia- 
tion of  the  influence  of  woman,  and  of  the  value 
of  goodness  in  woman ;  they  show  that  then,  very 
much  as  now,  the  issues  of  life  were  felt  to  be 
actually  in  her  hands,  that  everything  depended 
on  her  being  good  and  true.  And  not  all  the 
proverbs  about  women  take  the  warning  tone; 
the  gracious  woman  who  "  retaineth  honor,"  45 
the  wise  woman  who  "  buildeth  her  house  "  4G — 
that  is,  who  is  the  basis  of  her  family's  stability 
—  the  good  wife,  are  well  known  and  highly  ap- 

45  23  :  25.  *5  1 1 :  16. 

«*  18:  22;    19:  14.  *°  14:  1. 


234  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

predated  by  the  makers  of  these  proverbs.  Most 
of  the  religious  systems  of  the  world  have  suf- 
fered by  overlooking  woman,  but  the  religious 
system  of  Israel  no  more  than  its  moral  code 
made  that  mistake.  The  last  chapter  of  Proverbs 
gives  a  picture  of  an  active,  industrious,  and  very 
capable  wife,  but  her  virtues  are  not  merely  pru- 
dential. This  woman  is  her  husband's  counselor, 
in  whom  his  heart  trusteth,  who  always  does  him 
good ;  she  is  far-sighted  for  opportunities,  quick 
in  perception,  and  independent  in  action  to  a  very 
remarkable  degree.  She  considereth  a  field  and 
buyeth  it;  she  is  no  clinging  vine,  strength  and 
dignity  are  her  clothing.  And  with  all  her  stur- 
dy virtues  and  independence  she  is  a  gracious 
woman,  opening  her  mouth  with  wisdom  and 
having  the  law  of  kindness  on  her  tongue. 

No  doubt  the  book  of  Proverbs  treats  of  illicit 
love,  and  perhaps  some  of  us  have  gathered  from 
it  that  this  was  a  prevalent  sin.  But  the  very 
vigor  of  reprehension  with  which  it  is  here  treat- 
ed speaks  volumes  for  the  high  standard  of  sex- 
ual purity  in  Israel;  no  peoples  of  the  present 
day  take  so  high  a  stand  as  to  what  is  practicable 
in  this  matter,  and  what  society  has  a  right  to 
expect  in  this  respect,  as  we  find  in  the  book  of 
Proverbs. 

The  book  of  Proverbs  holds  to  the  triumph  of 
the  good  in  the  great  world-controversy  between 


SECULAR  FAITH  235 

good  and  evil.     The  rewards  and   punishments 

are  indeed  to  be  meted  out  in  this  world,  through 
prosperity  or  the  reverse;  yet  this  view  of  life 
had  at  that  time  its  great  importance.  The  Wis- 
dom literature,  and  especially  the  book  of  Prov- 
erbs, had  this  weighty  part  to  play:  to  bring  the 
minds  of  the  people  into  sympathy  with  the 
prophetic  teaching.  The  most  inspired  prophecy 
needs  for  full  efficacy  a  prepared  mind ;  the  Wise 
Men  of  Israel  did  this  work  of  preparation.  It 
was  as  true  in  Israel  as  it  is  today  among  our 
colored  people  of  the  South,  and  as  it  is  among 
all  people  everywhere,  that  no  religion  can  be 
permanently  uplifting  which  does  not  stand  on  a 
sound  ethical  basis.  For  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
people,  the  unthoughtful  who  make  up  the  ma- 
jority of  every  community,  those  to  whom  prac- 
tical sanctions  make  the  strongest  appeal,  the 
Wise  Men  supplied  the  basis  upon  which  the 
higher  ethical  teachings  of  the  prophets  could 
build  themselves. 

The  Wisdom  literature  was  especially  valuable, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  furnishing  a  link  between 
prophecy  and  the  best  moral  and  intellectual  at- 
tainments of  other  nations.  They,  too,  had  their 
wise  men  and  their  wisdom;  the  wisdom  of  Israel 
differed  from  them  all  in  its  firm  ethical  basis, 
and  in  the  individualism  which  sprang  from  that. 
It  furnished  the  bridere  by  which  the  best  minds 


236         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

of  the  gentiles  could  pass  over  to  the  high  spir- 
ituality of  Israel.  We  know  that  in  the  later 
centuries  before  the  Christian  era  so  large  a 
proportion  of  the  brightest  minds  of  paganism 
had  passed  over  to  Judaism  that  Jewish  prose- 
lytes were  found  in  large  numbers  in  every  nation 
under  heaven,  and  afterward  formed  the  basis  of 
the  Christian  church  in  gentile  nations.  This 
was  largely  due  to  the  then  widely  read  books 
of  Wisdom,  canonical  and  apocryphal. 


The  most  potent  in  this  respect  of  all  these 
books  was  Ecclesiastes,  or  Koheleth,47  as  it  is 
more  properly  called.  While  thoroughly  Hebrew, 
it  forms  a  very  important  link  with  the  philosoph- 
ical literature  of  other  peoples. 

The  fundamental  characteristic  of  Hebrew 
philosophy,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  book  of  Prov- 
erbs, is  its  religious  basis :  its  very  foundation  is 
God.  In  Proverbs  God  is  the  wise  and  good 
Ruler  of  the  world,  the  vague  idea  of  law  as  his 
mode  of  ruling,  entrancing  as  it  was,  not  having 
yet,  to  the  Hebrew  mind,  entered  the  moral 
sphere.     "  Wisdom,"  in  which  there  appears  to 

47  The  Hebrew  word  is  Koheleth;  it  means,  perhaps,  "  coun- 
selor; "  it  certainly  does  not  mean  "  preacher,"  as  those  who  gave 
the  book  the  Greek  name  "  Ecclesiastes  "  thought  it  did.  Koheleth 
is  the  proper  name  assumed  by  the  writer.  It  is  commonly  held  to 
be  a  name  for  Solomon,  and  unquestionably  was  intended  to  be  so 
understood.  But  this  is  no  more  a  testimony  to  the  authorship  of 
the   book  than   the  pronoun   "  I  "   of  a  modern  novel. 


SECULAR  FAITH  237 

be  some  dim  adumbration  of  the  notion  of  nat- 
ural law,  was  the  delight  of  God,  something 
apart  from  him,  lovely  and  beneficent,  friendly  to 
man,  irresponsible,  but  very  good.  God  ruled  the 
world  by  its  means,  and  because  he  ruled  it  right, 
therefore  the  good  always  prospered.  This  con- 
viction, which  was  well-nigh  universal  in  the  He- 
brew mind  in  a  certain  stage  of  its  development, 
naturally  resulted  in  the  belief  that  affliction  or  a 
want  of  prosperity  must  argue  wickedness.  This 
doctrine  was  so  firmly  held  that,  as  has  been  seen, 
the  Psalmist  was  greatly  puzzled  at  the  prosper- 
ity of  the  wicked ;  and  we  shall  find  that  Job's 
deepest  suffering  came  from  the  prevalence  of 
the  same  idea. 

A  conflict  thus  arose  in  thoughtful  Hebrew 
minds,  and  from  the  cheerful  but  superficial  op- 
timism of  Proverbs,  convinced  that  all  is  for 
the  best  in  the  best  of  all  possible  worlds,  many 
thinkers  of  Israel,  gathering  together  the  sum 
of  human  experiences  as  a  basis  for  reflective 
generalization,  and  perceiving  that  after  all  the 
righteous  did  not  always  prosper,  and  that  it 
often  went  well  with  the  wicked,  passed  into  a 
stage  of  pessimism,  if  we  may  use  the  word,  not 
in  its  modern  philosophic  sense,  but  as  a  term  for 
profound  discouragement  which  finds  no  key  to 
the  enigma  of  life,  yet  does  not  utterly  despair 
of  the  future,  nor  lose  all  belief  in  God.     This 


238         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

state  of  mind  is  very  strongly  set  forth  in  Eccle- 
siastes,  and  from  it,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  the 
author  at  last  escaped  by  the  doctrine  of  provi- 
dence.48 

The  book  has  a  peculiar  charm,  especially  to 
the  advanced  in  years.  It  is  the  only  purely  re- 
flective work  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  there  is 
a  strange  fascination  in  its  pregnant  sentences, 
shrewd  reflections  on  things,  applicable  for  all 
times,  and  utterances  at  least  suggestive  of  pro- 
found spiritual  truth.  As  a  whole,  however,  it 
has  generally  been  held  to  be  rather  incoherent, 
incapable  of  analysis,  and  without  that  single 
thread  of  purpose  which  gives  unity  to  a  book. 
Therefore  this  book  has  always  been  a  puzzle  to 
expositors,  and  it  is  only  in  comparatively  recent 
years  that  anything  like  a  satisfactory  analysis 
has  been  wrought  out.49 

48  It  is  possible  that  Koheleth  may  not  have  followed  Proverbs 
in  the  sequence  of  time.  There  are  scholars  who  hold  that  it  is  ear- 
lier than  the  present  form  of  Proverbs.  Cut  in  the  experience  of 
life  this  appears  to  be  the  order.  The  folklore  which  is  the  ma- 
terial  of    Proverbs   was   ancient. 

48  How  difficult  is  the  work  of  analysis  may  be  seen  by  a  com- 
parison of  a  few  standard  authors.  Ginsberg  and  Cox  make  four 
divisions  with  prologue  and  epilogue;  Bradley  makes  eight;  Plump- 
tre,  ten;  Wildeboer,  fourteen;  Driver  says  that  it  contains  no  clearly 
marked  subdivisions,  and  Davidson  (Encyclopedia  Biblica)  and 
Peake  (Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible)  agree  with  him  in  at- 
tempting none.  Wildeboer,  however,  points  out  that  Koheleth  re- 
peatedly returns  to  the  thought:  "  It  is  better  to  enjoy  life  than 
to  philosophize  over  it."  This  thought,  first  brought  to  my  notice 
by  a  casual  remark  of  President  Stewart,  of  Auburn,  I  have  taken 
as  the  guiding  principle  in  my  analysis.  Professor  Genung  includes 
in  his  summary  of  "  the  structural  idea  "  of  the  book  the  thought 
that  "life  .  .  .  must  be  its  own  reward  and  blessedness,  or 
nothing;  "  but  this  thought  does  not  govern  his  analysis. 


SECULAR  FAITH  239 

With  Proverbs  and  Job  Ecclesiastes  forms  a 
trilogy  working  out  the  spiritual  problem  of  hu- 
manity; not  of  Judaism  only,  but  of  all  the  ages. 
Proverbs  stands  at  the  beginning  of  this  pro- 
found, and  imperatively  needed,  study,  with  its 
question  :  What  is  good  —  that  is,  right  —  for 
me?  Ecclesiastes  lifts  the  subject  to  a  far  higher 
plane,  asking  from  a  wider  spiritual  horizon  and 
a  deeper  nature:  What  is  the  chief  good  for 
man  ?  And  Job  triumphantly  crowns  the  process 
by  opening  up  the  deep  mystery  of  the  absolute 
good.50 

Koheleth  has  been  called,  and  in  a  sense  he 
has  been  correctly  called,  a  pessimist ;  and  from 
failure  to  perceive  the  natural  and  important 
place  of  pessimism  in  the  development  of  thought, 
in  the  attainment  of  a  sound  ethical  basis  for 
religion,  some  devout  scholars  have  deemed  his 
book  far  less  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  canon  than 
that,  in  general,  fine  collection  of  proverbs  and 
reflections  included  in  the  apocryphal  book  Eccle- 
siasticus.51  The  Jews  themselves  thought  little 
of   Ecclesiastes.     It  was  never  taught   in   their 

60  This  appears  to  me  to  be  the  thought  sequence,  entirely  irre- 
spective of  the  question  of  the  date  of  writing  or  final  redaction  of 
any  of  these  books.  Job  is  doubtless  earlier  than  the  final  redaction 
of  Proverbs,  and  Ecclesiastes  is  probably  the  latest  of  the  three. 
But  it  is  nothing  unusual  in  the  history  of  human  thought  that  one 
man  should  come  a  generation  or  several  centuries  too  soon.  Job 
was  probably   not   more  before  his  time  than   Bruno. 

61  Koheleth  takes  a  weighty  place  in  the  canons  of  the  Old 
Testament.  It  is  a  valuable  document  in  the  history  of  Israel's 
unparalleled   religion." — Wildebocr    in    Die   fiinf  Megillot,    p.    119. 


240         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

schools,  nor  read  in  the  synagogues,  and  it  is 
nowhere  directly  referred  to  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, though  there  are  clear  evidences  of  its 
influence  in  the  writings  of  Paul  and  James.  Its 
purpose  has  been  variously  apprehended,  but  in 
general  the  dictum,  "  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is 
vanity,"  has  been  held  to  be  its  keynote;  it  is 
taken  as  the  discouraged  utterances  of  one  who 
had  exhausted  all  forms  of  pleasure,  worthy  and 
unworthy,  and  found  all  alike  stale,  flat,  and  un- 
profitable. 

I  think  that  a  search  into  the  literary  structure 
of  this  book,  with  an  apprehension  of  the  writer's 
understanding  of  the  word  "  judgment,"  will 
show  us  that  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes,  busy  in 
reflecting  upon  all  the  facts  of  a  varied  experi- 
ence to  ascertain  this  sumnutm  bonum,  this 
"  chief  good,"  or,  as  he  himself  states  it,  the 
"  profit," 52  the  net  result  to  be  gained  from 
life's  experiences,  though  a  pessimist,  is  at  least 
not  a  coward;  that,  in  fact,  he  is  brave  and  de- 
termined, and  though  his  experiences  have  been 
for  the  most  part  sad,  in  the  end  by  virtue  of  his 
courage  he  wins  through  to  hope.53  He  sees 
that  things  have  their  ups  and  downs;  there  is  a 

62 "  What  profit  hath  man  in  all  his  labors  that  he  laboreth 
under  the  sun?"  (1:3).  This  is  the  key  of  the  book.  It  is,  in 
fact,  the  search  for  the  chief  good. 

03 "  An  earnest  man  who  doubts  much  that  others  lightly  be- 
lieve, but  will  not  for  that  give  up  the  faith  of  his  childhood  —  that 
is  Koheleth."— Wildeboer,  op.  cit. 


SECULAR  FAITH  241 

time  for  everything,  for  adversity  and  sorrow  as 
well  as  for  prosperity  and  mirth.     It  is  his  evil 
fortune  to  live,  he  thinks,  in  a  bad  time,  but  he 
does    not   teach,    with    modern    pessimists,    that 
everything  is  going  on  from  bad  to  worse;  on 
the  contrary,  he  cherishes  a  despairing  hope  that 
things  will  take  a  turn  some  day,  and  that  be 
up  which  now  is  down.     He  is  no  doubt  a  dis- 
appointed man;  again  and  again  he  has  failed  in 
his  quest  of  the  chief  good,  but  he  is  too  much  in 
earnest,  too  confident  that  it  may  be  found,  to 
give  up  the  search.     He  has  advanced  beyond 
the  superficial  optimism  of  Proverbs,  certain  that 
God  always  rewards  the  righteous  with  prosper- 
ity and  sends  afflictions  upon  the  wicked.     His 
observation  of  life  goes  deeper  than  that:  one 
of  the  vanities  that  he  has  found  done  upon  earth 
is  that  "  there  be  righteous  men  unto  whom  it 
happeneth  according  to  the  work  of  the  wicked : 
again  there  be  wicked  men  to  whom  it  happeneth 
according  to  the  work  of  the  righteous."     It  be- 
wilders him,  yet  he  does  not  hug  his  doubts;  his 
fixed  purpose  is  to  scatter  them ;  that  there  can  be 
any  faith  in  "  honest  doubt "  is  to  him  incon- 
ceivable. 

But  to  say  that  Ecclesiastes  shows  all  this  after 
the  manner  of  a  philosophic  treatise,  whether  a 
work  of  formal  logic,  such  as  our  ancestors 
wrote,   or  a  work  in  which  inquiry  is  pursued 


242  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

under  literary  forms,  as  in  thoughtful  books  of 
today,  is  to  say  what  is  not  the  case;  to  expect 
this  of  the  book  would  be  to  misunderstand  the 
genius  of  the  Wisdom  literature,  and,  in  fact,  of 
the  oriental  mind.  Ecclesiastes  is  not  a  philo- 
sophical treatise,  but  a  series  of  essays,  somewhat 
like  those  of  Montaigne  or  Bacon  or  Emerson. 
They  have  a  thread  of  connection,  but  it  is  rather 
that  of  a  suite  in  music  than  that  of  a  consecu- 
tive course  of  argument  or  reflection.54 

VI 

Words  of  Koheleth 
Son  of  David,  King  in  Jerusalem 
This  first  verse  is  the  title  of  the  book,  which 
consists  of  eight  chapters,  in  which  life  is  sur- 
veyed from  as  many  points  of  view,  with  pro- 
logue and  epilogue.  The  prologue,  which  in- 
cludes vss.  i-ii  of  the  first  chapter,  strikes  the 
keynote.  Koheleth  is  profoundly,  and  very  un- 
favorably, impressed  with  the  workings  of  that 
natural  law  which  the  writer  in  Proverbs  had 
joyfully  personified  as  Wisdom.  His  characteri- 
zation of  it  is  the  leading  motive  of  the  earlier 
essays,  and  in  a  sense  of  the  whole  book:  "  Van- 
ity of  vanities,"  saith  Koheleth,  "  vanity  of  vani- 
ties—  all  is  vanity." 

Gi  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  often  musical  forms  arc  a  key 
in  Hebrew  literature.  This  is  especially  the  case  in  the  prophets, 
as  there  is   no  opportunity   here  to  show. 


SECULAR  FAITH  243 

The  inexorable  nature  of  law  seems  to  him  as 
to  the  last  degree  discouraging,  because  by  its 
workings  everything  goes  around  in  a  circle,  with 
no  progress,  and  therefore  no  hope.  Generation 
goeth  and  generation  cometh.  and  the  earth  abid- 
eth  forever.  The  sun  ariseth  and  the  sun  goeth 
down  and  cometh  panting  back55  to  the  place 
where  he  ariseth.  The  wind  bloweth  toward  the 
south  and  turneth  about  unto  the  north;  all  the 
streams  run  into  the  sea,  yet  the  sea  is  not  full; 
unto  the  place  whence  the  streams  come,  thither 
they  go  again. 

To  this  son  of  many  generations  who  had 
traced  every  event,  evil  as  well  as  good,  directly 
to  the  hand  of  God,  this  first  dawn  of  science, 
this  first  faint  recognition  of  the  reign  of  law, 
must  needs  have  been  profoundly  depressing  and 
bewildering.  Is  law  stronger  than  God?  It  is 
not  surprising  that -to  him  "  all  things  are  full  of 
weariness;  man  cannot  utter  it;  the  eye  is  not 
satisfied  with  seeing  nor  the  ear  filled  with  hear- 
ing." For  all  things  seem  to  have  become  a 
mere  treadmill  of  profitless  activity  — "  That 
which  hath  been  done  is  that  which  shall  be  done, 
and  there  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun."  Yet 
Koheleth  does  not  summarily  decide  that  this  is 
all:     he    determinately    sets    himself    to    search 

65  Professor  Genung's  literal  and  significant  translation.  "  The 
unwearied  sun  pants  through  his  daily  round,"  says  Dean  Bradley 
(Lectures  on  Ecclesiastes). 


244         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

whether  or  not  it  is  so,  hoping  to  find  an  escape 
from  this  inexorable  wheel  of  nature  in  a  su- 
preme good  —  a  Power,  that  is,  which  is  above 
law  and  can  subordinate  it  to  his  own  will ;  can 
wring  "  profit,"  progress,  from  that  which  by  its 
very  constitution  yields  none. 

The  first  essay,  which  goes  from  1 :  12  through 
chap.  2,  shows  "  good  sought  in  experience."  In 
this  essay,  and  probably  through  the  book,  the 
writer  assumes  the  personality  of  Solomon,  the 
ideal  of  wisdom  and  happiness,  who  might  be 
supposed  to  make  the  search  under  the  most 
hopeful  conditions.  He  would  test  everything 
that  men  call  good  and  find  what  profit  it  yields. 
First,  "  wisdom  "  :  "I  applied  my  heart  to  sur- 
vey and  search  by  wisdom  into  all  that  is  done 

under   heaven I   acquired   greater 

wisdom  than  all  who  were  in  Jerusalem  before 
me  " —  but  only  to  find  that  in  much  wisdom  is 
much  sadness,  and  to  multiply  knowledge  is  to 
multiply  sorrow. 

Then  he  tried  mirth,  but  found  it  mad;  and 
pleasure,  but  found  it  vanity.  He  tried  what 
pomp  of  life  would  do;  he  builded  houses  and 
made  gardens  and  parks,  gathered  silver  and  gold 
and  all  the  delights  of  the  sons  of  men ;  he  kept 
not  his  heart  back  from  any  joy,  and  behold,  "  all 
was  vanity  and  a  chase  after  wind,  and  there  was 
no  profit  under  the  sun." 


SECULAR  FAITH  245 

Then  he  turned  to  compare  wisdom  and  folly, 
and  though  he  finds  that  wisdom  excels  folly  as 
light  excels  darkness,  yet  "  one  event  befalleth 
them  all."  "  A  fate  like  that  of  the  fool  will  be- 
fall me,  even  me:  to  what  end  then  am  I  wiser?  " 
So  this,  too,  is  vanity. 

Again  he  seeks  the  chief  good  in  labor,  in  the 
production  of  wealth;  but  this,  too,  fails,  for  he 
must  leave  it  to  the  man  who  would  come  after 
him,  and  who  can  tell  whether  he  will  be  a  wise 
man  or  a  fool  ?  Koheleth  revolved  all  this  until 
it  made  his  heart  despair.  "There  is  nothing 
better  for  a  man  than  to  eat  and  drink;"  yet  he 
perceives  that  even  this  is  not  in  his  own  power, 
it  also  is  subject  to  law  — "  for  who  can  eat  and 
who  can  enjoy  himself  apart  from  him?"  Al- 
most unconsciously  he  has  sounded  the  note  that 
is  to  ring  ever  clearer  through  all  its  quest: 
"Life  itself  is  good,  since  God  is  in  it  all!  Be 
glad !  "  Yet  for  the  moment  the  thought  of  his 
own  impotence  overwhelms  him ;  "  this  also  is 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit." 

The  second  essay,  "  The  Philosophy  of  Times 
and  Seasons,"  occupies  chap.  3.  Koheleth  sets 
himself  to  discover  a  justifying  theory  of  the 
universe,  the  iron  law  which  so  enthrals  him. 
Looking  away  from  the  narrow  sphere  of  his 
own  experience,  he  considers  the  cosmic  order. 
It  affords  him  no  relief.    What  profit  in  a  scheme 


246         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

of  things  which  fixes,  not  the  most  fitting,  the 
most  suitable,  but  the  inevitable  time?  Again, 
is  law  stronger  than  God?  Yet  here  he  dimly 
perceives  an  escape  from  the  wheel  of  law,  be- 
cause "  God  has  put  eternity  in  man's  heart."  56 
He  seems  to  be  conscious  of  some  realm  in  which 
God  is  himself  the  Master  of  law,  though  that 
consciousness  is  too  vague  to  enable  man  "  to 
find  out  the  work  which  God  hath  wrought 
there."  Yet  it  is  enough  to  bring  him  again  to 
the  conclusion,  "  Be  glad !  "  57  God  has  given  it 
to  men  to  rejoice  and  do  good,  to  eat,  drink,  and 
enjoy. 

Here  is  dimly  adumbrated  that  confidence  in 
the  judgment  of  God  which  shines  out  effulgently 
at  the  close  of  the  book,  and  which  is  so  essential 
an  element  in  the  joy  of  the  later  Hebrew  writers. 
Koheleth  has  as  yet  found  no  place  in  the  world 
of  time  for  this  judgment,  this  divine  criticism 
of  life;  the  inexorable  wheel  of  things  grinds  on; 
"  that  which  is  hath  been  long  ago,  God  maketh 
to  return  that  which  is  past."  The  vanity  of 
things  again  rushes  over  him ;  what  profit  is  there 
in  a  judgment  the  only  outcome  of  which  is  that 
men  learn  that  by  nature  they  are  beasts?  "  For 
one  hap  befalleth  them :  as  dieth  the  one  so  dieth 
the  other,"  and  "all  is  vanity."  Yet  again,  for 
the  second  time  in  this  essay,58  he  returns  to  his 

••3:11.  "3:12,   13.  K  3:  22;  cf.  vs.    13. 


SECULAR  FAITH  247 

conclusion,  "Be  glad!"  This  is  man's  portion, 
it  is  the  gift  of  God.  He  has  not  yet  won  through 
to  the  true  reason.  His  present  conclusions  may 
be  "  the  human  soul's  effort  to  anestheticize  it- 
self," 5S)  but  this  is  not  the  end. 

This  conclusion  leads  not  unnaturally  to  a  con- 
sideration of  human  nature;  and  the  third  essay 
deals  with  "  The  Deceptions  and  Inconsistencies 
of  Men"  (chaps.  4,  5).  There  are  oppressions 
on  the  part  of  some,  and  tears  on  the  part  of 
others,  and  sorrowing  ones  have  no  comforter. 
There  are  envyings  between  equals,  and  even  the 
successful  man  has  a  dissatisfied  heart.  "  For 
whom,"  he  saith,  "do  I  labor?"  What  is  the 
good  of  it  all?  Some  things,  indeed,  are  better 
than  others :  "  two  are  better  than  one ;  a  poor 
and  wise  child  is  better  than  an  old  and  foolish 
king ;  "  it  is  better  to  be  careful  in  religious  ob- 
servance than  recklessly  to  make  God  angry;  the 
lot  of  the  underfed  laborer  is  better  than  that  of 
the  surfeited  rich ;  but  the  experience  of  all  alike 
is  profitless,  for  "  as  man  came  naked  into  the 
world,  so  altogether  as  he  came  he  must  go." 
But  just  here  comes  another  flash  of  that  light 
toward  which  Koheleth  is  groping.  After  all, 
there  is  profit.  There  is  joy  in  the  fulfilment  of 
common  duty.  To  rejoice  in  his  labor  comes  not 
from  the  working  out  of  law ;  this  is  the  gift  of 

M  Davidson  in  Encyclopedia  Biblica. 


248         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

God,  something  over  and  above.  He  has  said  it 
before ;  he  understands  it  better  now.  God  is  not 
bound  by  law,  he  can  respond  even  to  the  mood 
of  man,  and  man  "  will  not  much  remember  the 
days  of  his  life,  when  God  respondeth  to  him  in 
joy  of  heart." 

VII 

The  flash  of  light  was  only  a  flash,  and  in  the 
fourth  essay  (6:1 — 7:14)  the  inexorableness 
of  law  reasserts  itself  in  that  fatalistic  guise 
which  has  such  power  over  the  eastern  mind, 
although  by  marvelous  exception  it  was  never  a 
Hebrew  characteristic.  Koheleth  points  out  that 
men  may  have  great  possessions  without  enjoy- 
ment; man  with  the  noblest  purposes  and  the 
most  strenuous  efforts  cannot  shake  himself  free 
from  the  power  of  irresponsible  law.  He  almost 
reaches  fatalism  here. 

Why  should  one  care  for  anything  —  weak  and 
impotent  that  he  is?  Whatever  he  is,  his  char- 
acter and  destiny  were  fixed  before  he  was  born, 
his  name  was  given  him  long  ago,  and  it  is 
known  that  man  is  (merely)  man-;  and  "what 
profit  therefore  to  him  ?  For  who  knoweth  what 
is  good  for  man  in  life,  all  the  days  of  his  vain 
life  which  he  spendeth  like  a  shadow?" 

Who  knoweth?  With  characteristic  bravery 
Koheleth  sets  himself  to  find  his  way  out  of  the 
dark  cloud  of  pessimism  which  has  enwrapped 


SECULAR  FAITH  249 

him,  by  seeking  for  the  relatively  better,   even 
though  there  be  no  absolutely  good. 

A  good   name  is  better  than  good   nard 

And  the  day  of  death  better  than  the  day  of  one's  birth. 

Wisdom   is   a   shelter 

And  wealth  is  a  shelter, 

But  the  advantage  of  wisdom  is  [not  that  it  enables  one  to 

control  events  but] 
That  it  fortifieth  the  heart  of  them  that  have  it.60 

With  a  heart  thus  fortified  he  can  contemplate 
the  work  of  God,  and  though  in  it  he  still  finds 
no  room  for  human  initiative,  since  none  "  can 
make  straight  that  which  he  hath  made  crooked," 
yet  again  he  can  return  to  his  conclusion :  "  Be 
glad  "  in  the  day  of  prosperity,  and  in  the  day 
of  adversity  still  be  glad,  since  wisdom,  contem- 
plating the  work  of  God,  and  perceiving  that  it 
is  he  who  puts  one  side  by  side  with  the  other, 
perceives  that  it  is  better  that  man  should  not 
find  out  anything  after  him,61  but  should  trust 
himself  to  God.  Here  at  last  is  progress.  Ko- 
heleth  has  reached  something  definite,  something 
which  he  grasps  during  all  his  further  quest.  In 
the  very  existence  of  God  is  implied  that  guar- 
antee of  good,  that  providence,  which  shall  offset, 
which  may  even  overcome,  the  natural  and  other- 
wise inevitable  workings  of  law. 

"Good    is   wisdom"02   was   a   conclusion   of 

•°  7: 1-12.  *2  7: 11. 

01  7:  13,   14- 


250         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Koheleth  in  the  fourth  essay.  In  the  fifth  essay 
(7:15  —  8:15)  he  returns  to  consider,  "  Where- 
in is  wisdom  good  ?  "  On  the  whole,  the  reply 
is  disappointing.  Nothing  seems  to  go  right; 
righteous  men  perish  through  their  very  right- 
eousness, and  wicked  men  prolong  life  through 
their  very  evil-doing.  It  is  not  worth  while  to 
be  too  righteous  nor  to  rack  one's  brains  too 
much  about  the  meaning  of  things.  Yet  it  is 
well  to  have  something  of  both,  for  "  he  that 
feareth  God  shall  come  forth  from  them  all." 
There  are  many  things  that  he  cannot  compre- 
hend ;  wisdom  is  far  from  him ;  he  is  perplexed 
by  the  ways  of  men,  and  particularly  embittered 
by  those  of  women.  "  God  made  man  upright," 
but  women  (the  pronoun  is  feminine)  "  have 
sought  out  many  inventions."  Woman  is  un- 
questionably, to  his  mind,  one  of  the  chief  foes, 
not  so  much  of  goodness  as  of  happiness ;  yet  in 
a  later  hour  and  happier  mood  he  shows  a  very 
keen  appreciation  of  the  joys  of  wedded  love. 
There  are  benefits  in  wisdom,  but  they  are  doubt- 
ful. A  wise  man's  heart  knows  time  and  judg- 
ment, yet  he  cannot  know  that  which  shall  be. 
Law  is  arbitrary  and  irresponsible;  but  he  has  be- 
come convinced  that  God  is  stronger  than  law 
and  can  bend  it  to  his  good  will  —  the  doctrine, 
that  is,  of  providence. 

With  this  doctrine  as  a  light  he  can  consider 


SECULAR  FAITH  25 1 

in  the  sixth  essay  (8:  16  —  9:  10)  "  The  Futility 
of  Wisdom  as  a  Key  to  the  Riddles  of  Experi- 
ence." "  Man  cannot  fathom  the  work  that  is 
done  under  the  sun.  All  things  come  alike  to 
all,  one  event  happens  to  the  righteous  and  to  the 
wicked."  Koheleth  seems  to  be  very  near  the 
abyss  of  fatalism  here ;  he  escapes  from  it  by 
the  conclusion  that  everything  is  in  the  hand  of 
God,  and  that  to  be  friends  with  him  is  to  be  on 
the  side  of  one  who  can,  and  sooner  or  later  will, 
intervene  for  his  aid,  subordinating  law  to  his 
own  righteousness.  Therefore  he  can  return 
with  new  emphasis  to  his  old  conclusion,  "  Be 
glad!"  "There  is  nothing  better  for  man  un- 
der the  sun  than  to  eat  and  drink  and  be  glad,"  C3 
to  enjoy  the  good  that  God  has  provided.  What 
though  "  man  cannot  fathom  the  work  [of  God] 
that  is  wrought  under  the  sun?  "  What  though 
it  is  all  inscrutable  —  and  Koheleth  gives  many 
instances  of  this  —  yet  it  is  God's  work,  not  the 
work  of  blind  and  arbitrary  law;  and  therefore 
man  may  be  glad.  "  Go  thou,  eat  thy  bread  with 
gladness  and  drink  with  merry  heart  thy  wine, 
for  already  hath  God  accepted  thy  works."  64 

In  the  seventh  essay,  "  Time  and  Chance " 
(9:11  —  11  :  8),  Koheleth  returns  to  the  ques- 
tion of  timeliness,  which  was  the  subject  of  the 
second   essay,   and  of  fate    (or  chance),   which 

M8:  15.  "9:  7. 


252  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

was  the  subject  of  the  fourth.  The  essay  con- 
tains several  well-conceived  little  parables  65  and 
several  probable  allusions  to  events  of  Koheleth's 
own  time.66  It  shows  a  deep  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  life  and  human  nature,  often  clothed  in 
pregnant  aphorisms.67  This  essay  includes  sev- 
eral very  poetic  passages,  especially  a  quatrain 
which  in  a  sense  sums  up  the  philosophy  of  life 
as  Koheleth  understands  life.  "  In  the  morning 
sow  thy  seed,  and  at  eve  slacken  not  thy  hand, 
for  thou  knowest  not  which  shall  prosper,  this  or 
that,  or  whether  both  shall  be  alike  good."  68 
It  closes  with  a  new  call  to  "  Be  glad !  "  based 
upon  the  actual  sweetness  of  life,69  yet  with  so 
much  progress  in  the  thought  as  is  found  in  the 
reminder  that  the  best  happiness  is  found  where 
life  is  in  harmony  with  law. 

VIII 
Appropriately  following  this  summing  up,  the 
eighth  essay  (11:9 — 12:7)  begins  with  the 
call  to  be  glad.  This  is  now  in  its  proper  place, 
for  gladness  has  at  last  found  its  true  basis  in  the 
judgment   of   God.     The  essay   proper   is   very 

88  10:  14,    15. 

80 10:  16,  17. 

67  A  special  interest  attaches  to  10:9  because  of  its  close  re- 
semblance to  one  of  the  Logia  or  "  Sayings "  of  our  Lord  found 
at   Oxyrhynchus   in    Egypt   several   years  ago. 

*  1 1 :  6. 

98  11:  7.  8- 


SECULAR  FAITH  253 

short,  including  only  the  last  four  verses  of  chap. 
11,  and  being  followed  by  a  sonnet,  which  is  un- 
doubtedly the  most  beautiful  sonnet  in  the  Bible. 
In  the  essay  Koheleth  solves  his  dark  problem  by 
finding  the  chief  good  in  the  certitude  of  judg- 
ment—  that  is,  of  a  final  setting  right  —  by 
which  God  will  repair  the  errors  due  to  the  work- 
ings of  natural  law : 

Rejoice,  O  young  man  in  thy  youth,  and  let  thy  heart 
cheer  thee  in  the  clays  of  thy  youth,  and  walk  in  the  ways 
of  thine  heart  and  in  that  which  thine  eyes  desire;  and 
know  that  for  all  these  God  will  bring  thee  into  judgment. 
Banish  therefore  care  from  thy  mind,  and  put  away  sad- 
ness from  thy  flesh,   for  childhood  and  youth  are  Vanity. 

That  is,  they  are  what  they  are  in  accordance  with 
natural  law. 

No  doubt  many  have  read  the  line  about  judg- 
ment as  a  threat,  and  considered  the  words  "  Re- 
joice, O  young  man,"  etc.,  as  sarcastic.  But  this 
is  not  Koheletlrs  attitude  toward  judgment.  To 
him,  and  to  the  devout  Israelite  of  his  time  and 
after,  judgment  was  an  event  hoped  for,  the 
time  that  would  compensate  for  all  the  sorrows 
and  pains  of  life.  Israel  was  God's  child :  the 
final  reckoning  must  be  one  of  joy.  The  psalms 
are  so  full  of  this  eager  looking-forward  to  judg- 
ment that  it  is  a  wonder  so  few  of  us  have  recog- 
nized this: 

Let  the  heavens  rejoice  and  let  the  earth  be  glad 
Before  Jehovah;   for  he  cometh, 


254         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

For  he  cometh  to  judge  the  earth, 
And  the  people  with  his  truth.70 

And  again : 

Let  the  hills  sing  for  joy  together 
Before  Jehovah ;  for  he  cometh  to  judge  the  world. 
With  righteousness  shall  he  judge  the  world, 
And  the  people  with  equity.71 

Yes,  though  wisdom  had  failed  to  satisfy  the 
yearning  of  the  man  who  longed  for  the  Chief 
Good,  though  he  had  found  pleasure  vanity,  and 
toil  and  labor  and  love  and  beauty  but  vanity  and 
vexation  of  spirit,  though  he  had  learned  that 

Nor  man  nor  nature  satisfy 
Whom  only  God  created, 

yet  at  last  the  quest  is  accomplished,  the  sought 
is  found :  in  trust  in  God  as  the  Chief  Good. 
With  God  his  friend,  man  may  well  rejoice  in 
the  pleasures  which  God  gives  his  children,  in 
sweet  household  joys  and  in  the  gratification  of 
high  purpose;  for  all  are  ennobled  and  made 
sacred  with  the  confidence  that  God  watches  over 
all,  and  brings  all  acts  to  the  pure  and  impartial 
bar  of  his  judgment.  There  the  long-desired 
Chief  Good  awaits  man.  And  so  the  sonnet  fol- 
lows, bidding  men  remember  the  Creator  who 
will  also  be  the  judge. 

After    this    comes    the    epilogue    (12:8-14), 
summing   up   the   result   of   all   this   travail   of 

TOPs.  96:  11,   13.  "98:8,   9. 


SECULAR  FAITH  255 

thought.  Having-  reached  the  point  of  rejoicing 
in  God's  providence,  it  seems  strange  to  find  this 
epilogue  beginning:  "All  is  vanity."  But  this 
is  only  to  lead  up  to  the  true  thought :  "  Fear 
God."  But  it  is  not  for  nothing  that  these  two 
thoughts  appear  here  side  by  side.  Together 
they  gather  up  in  one  the  thoughts  of  the  whole 
book.  Life  without  God.  life,  however  fortunate, 
subject  merely  to  natural  law,  is  but  vanity; 
life  with  him,  however  mysterious,  is  full  of  hope 
and  joy.     Thus  he  sums  up : 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is  this: 

That  God  taketh  cognizance  of  all  things. 

Fear  Him  therefore  [enter  into  allegiance  with  Him],  and 

keep  His  commandments. 
For  this   it  behooveth  every  man  to  do ; 
Since  God  will  bring  every  deed  to  the  judgment 
Appointed    for  every  secret  thing, 
Whether  it  be  good  or  whether  it  be  bad. 

For  the  judgment  of  God,  being  just  and  right, 
must  be  the  joy  and  not  the  dread  of  him  who 
desires  not  to  disobey,  and  not  to  live  apart  from, 
that  God  of  the  universe  who  can  bend  all  things, 
even  universal  law,  to  serve  his  righteous  ends. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL   CERTAINTY1 

I 

The  book  of  Job  is  the  third  2  in  a  trilogy  oc- 
cupied with  the  question  of  morals.  The  first, 
Proverbs,  is  eminently  practical,  asking:  What 
is  good  —  that  is,  right —  for  me?  The  second, 
Ecclesiastes,  advances  to  the  theoretical,  asking 
the  question  which  has  occupied  the  philosophers 
of  all  ages  :  What  is  the  Supreme  Good  ?  though 
having  this  advantage  over  most  other  metaphys- 

1  I  take  pleasure  here  in  owning  my  debt  to  Professor  Genung 
for  his  translation  of  Job  in  The  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life,  which  in 
general  I  have  used.  I  cannot  agree  with  him  in  his  statement  of 
the  problem  or  motive  of  Job  {ibid.,  p.  23).  It  seems  to  me  that 
that  was  Satan's  problem,  not  Job's.  Not  the  moral  possibilities  of 
man,  but  the  moral  character  of  God,  is  the  problem  which  tortures 
Job.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  a  far  deeper  and  more  insistent  prob- 
lem than  can  be  formulated,  as  many  others  have  formulated  it,  in 
the  words:  "Why  do  the  righteous  suffer?"  That  is  a  part  of 
the  question;  or  rather,  the  search  for  its  answer  opens  up  a  far 
deeper  question. 

To  acknowledge  all  I  owe  to  other  writers,  notably  Davidson. 
Ewald,  and  Cheyne,  would  be  tedious,  if  it  were  not  impossible. 
Their  teachings  have  passed  into  the  fiber  of  my  mind.  I  do  not 
know  what  of  all  I  have  written  is  theirs,  or  whether  anything  at 
all  is  mine,  unless  it  be  that  idea  of  law  as  the  golden  clue  to  this 
trilogy,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Job,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded. 

2  Third  in  the  order  of  thought,  not  of  time.  It  was  probably 
written  two  centuries  or  more  before  Ecclesiastes.  But  this  is  only 
to  say  that  in  Israel,  as  among  all  peoples,  there  are  men  of  genius 
whose  experience  has  confronted  them  with  certain  moral  problems 
before  their  time. 

256 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    257 

ical  works,  that  it  treats  the  question  as  one 
of  practical  importance.  The  third  volume  of 
the  trilogy,  Job,  lifts  the  question  into  the  domain 
of  the  purely  speculative,  asking-:  What  is  the 
Absolute  Good?  But  Job  has  this  superiority 
over  other  works  of  speculative  philosophy  that 
it  finds  its  question  still  a  practical  question,  the 
solution  of  all  problems  of  human  experience  de- 
pending upon  its  answer. 

But  the  moral  question  is  not  the  only  special 
characteristic  of  these  books  of  Wisdom.  They 
appear  to  stand  apart,  not  only  from  other  Old 
Testament  literature,  but  from  the  sacred  litera- 
ture of  all  ancient  peoples,  by  their  conception  of 
the  physical  universe  in  its  relation  to  God.  The 
writer  of  the  opening  chapters  of  Proverbs  ap- 
pears to  have  anticipated  the  thought  of  far  later 
centuries,  by  some  dim  perception  of  the  stu- 
pendous fact  that  the  physical  world  is  ruled  by 
law.  The  discovery  was  to  him  one  of  ineffable 
joy.  The  beauty  of  it,  the  magnificence  of  it, 
took  hold  of  him.  Physical  law  was  to  him  the 
wisdom  of  God,  the  delight  of  God,  the  eternal 
power  by  which  he  made  the  worlds,  always  be- 
neficent, always  glad,  sporting  always  before  God, 
sporting  in  his  habitable  earth,  and  her  delight 
with  the  sons  of  men. 

This  sublime  and  glad  conception  was  amply 
borne  out,  in  that  early  time,  by  human  experi- 


258  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

ence.  In  the  simple  days  of  Israel's  early  history 
the  righteous  prospered.  In  that  stage  of  social 
evolution  where  men  live  by  agriculture  and  cat- 
tle-raising, it  is  the  diligent,  sober,  faithful  man, 
the  man  who  fears  the  Lord  and  walks  in  his 
ways,  who  is  blessed.  The  early  sages  of  the 
book  of  Proverbs  perceived  in  this  fact  a  funda- 
mental truth,  which,  however,  they  would  not 
have  formulated  in  these  terms,  that  the  welfare 
of  man  depends  on  his  being  in  harmony  with 
universal  law.  that  is,  with  the  Heavenly  Wis- 
dom. For  generations  this  principle  was  the  sec- 
ular faith  of  the  Hebrew  people.  But  as  social 
conditions  became  more  complicated  it  often  came 
to  pass  that  the  wicked  prospered.  This  fact,  as 
we  saw  in  our  study  of  Ecclesiastes,  greatly  per- 
plexed the  thoughtful  and  religious  man.  Its 
tendency  was  to  pessimism.  Law  was  indeed 
there,  but,  far  from  being  delightful,  it  was  inex- 
orable and  cruel  to  man ;  it  was  not  wisdom,  but 
vanity ;  and  from  pessimism  Koheleth  escaped 
only  by  the  doctrine  of  providence;  that  God  is 
stronger  than  law,  and  can  bend  it  to  his  own 
righteous  purposes.  This  doctrine,  with  all  its 
difficulties,  is  still  held  by  the  majority  of  re- 
ligious persons,  who,  not  being  philosophers,  do 
not  formulate,  though  they  may  feel,  its  diffi- 
culties. 

But  as  time  went  on,  a  darker  problem  than  the 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY     259 

prosperity  of  the  wicked  assailed  the  thoughtful 
sage.  Not  only  did  the  wicked  prosper,  but  the 
righteous  were  often  afflicted.  To  many  an  Is- 
raelite this  seemed  to  open  the  door  to  atheism. 
Dark  thoughts  of  God  began  to  arise:  Was  he, 
after  all,  a  good  God?  Was  he  just?  Was  he 
doing  right  ?  There  were  those  who  gave  up  the 
problem  .and  accepted  the  dreadful  answer; 
wearying  God,  as  Malachi  says,  by  affirming. 
"  Everyone  that  doeth  evil  is  good  in  the  sight  of 
Jehovah  and  he  delighteth  in  them  ;"  and.  "  Where 
is  the  God  of  judgment?"3  That  is,  not  that 
there  is  no  God  —  only  the  fool  ever  said  that  — 
but  there  is  no  just  God.  no  God  of  judgment. 
It  was  in  the  awful  dread  of  such  a  conclusion 
that  the  psalmist  cried  importunately : 

O  God,  Jehovah,  to  whom  vengeance  belongeth, 
Thou  God  to  whom  vengeance  belongeth, 

Show  thyself! 
Arise,  thou  judge  of  the  world, 
And  reward  the  proud  after  their  deserving!4 

It  was  in  this  dark  doubt  of  the  character  of 
God  that  the  book  of  Job  was  written.  Hearts 
tortured  with  the  perplexity  of  mundane  events 
were  asking :  "  On  what  may  we  rest  our  confi- 
dence that  God  is  good?  Can  the  Power  that 
rules  the  world  be  trusted  to  rule  it  right?  What 
certainty  of  absolute  goodness  have  we?  " 

•Mai.    2:17.  *  Ps.   94:  1. 


260  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

This  awful  question  perpetually  returns  to  tor- 
ture those  whose  foundations  have  been  broken 
up  by  overwhelming  affliction  or  by  profound 
and  painful  observation  of  events.  The  noblest 
verse  of  Tennyson  and  Browning,  the  strongest 
prose  of  Carlyle,  are  strenuous  with  the  same 
question:  "Is  there  an  absolute  Good?  Is  a 
thing  right  simply  because  an  all-powerful  and 
irresponsible  Being  has  decreed  it  so?  Or  is 
there  a  sure  basis  of  goodness?  " 

This  is  the  problem  of  humanity.  Centuries 
before  Moses,  a  Chaldean  king  was  praying  "  to 
the  lady  of  Nineveh,  the  lady  of  heaven  and 
earth,  who  receives  prayers  ....  the  mer- 
ciful goddess  who  loves  justice,"  in  almost  the  very 
words  of  Job : 

In  what  have  I  sinned  against  thee? 

Why  hast  thou  allotted  me  diseases  —  boils  and  pestilence? 

Is  this  thy  just  decree? 

As  one  who  did  honor  to  thy  divinity  am  I  afflicted? 

If  I  have  not  commited  sin  and  evil 

Why  am  I  thus  smitten? 

With  this  question  the  poets  of  Greece  travailed 
as  in  the  throes  of  birth,  and  never  brought  forth 
an  answer.  Prometheus  Bound  is  the  tragedy  of 
tragedies,  not  because  of  the  indescribable  torture 
to  which  the  Titan  is  condemned,  not  even  be- 
cause in  the  throes  of  an  endless  agony  he  remains 
true  to  himself,  maintains  his  integrity,  bates  not 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY     261 

one  jot  of  his  contention  that  he  has  done  well  in 
giving  the  heavenly  fire  to  man,  but  because  in  his 
extremity  of  woe  he  has  to  do  with  an  unmoral 
god,  who  punishes  as  he  rewards,  from  mere 
caprice.  No  wonder  that  the  world's  greatest 
poets,  being  Greeks,  were  tragic  poets.  The 
world's  history  would  be  one  long  tragedy  but 
for  the  spiritual  certainty  to  which  that  eastern 
Prometheus,  Job,  did  at  last  attain,  at  the  price 
of  an  agony  not  less  terrible  than  that  of  the 
Titan  who  lay  chained  to  the  rock  on  Caucasus, 
with  the  vulture  forever  pecking  at  his  vitals.5 

II 
The  book  in  which  the  problem  of  the  moral 
character  of  God  was  first  worked  out  to  its  very 
last  element,  this  book  of  Job,  goes  far  deeper  in 
its  conception  of  the  universe  than  the  two  which 
precede  it.  In  Job  the  mystery  of  law  is  seen  to 
be  far  more  profound  than  had  yet  been  recog- 
nized. It  is  not  now  a  question  of  the  relation 
of  man  to  universal  law,  but  the  relations  of  God 
himself  to  this  law.  The  solution  which  would 
satisfy  a  Koheleth  is  manifestly  inadequate  to 
bring  peace  to  the  tried  and  tortured  Job.  He 
must  gain  a  truer  view  of  the  character  of  God 

6  I  have  been  admonished  in  this  place  that  the  certainty  which 
Job  sought  was  an  ethical,  not  a  spiritual,  certainty,  and  that  there- 
fore this  study  is  misnamed.  Without  attempting  to  argue  the 
question,  I  would  answer  that  it  seems  to  me  that  ethical  certainty 
is  possible  only   when   it   has  a  spiritual   basis. 


262  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

and  his  relations  to  the  world,  if  he  is  to  have  any 
God  at  all ;  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  clue  to  the 
entire  process  of  Job's  thought,  the  golden  thread 
by  which  he  finds  his  way  through  all  the  mazes 
of  agonized  questioning,  is  still  the  idea  of  law 
in  the  conception  of  God  as  Judge  —  the  same 
view  of  the  blessedness  of  judgment  which  is  the 
basis  of  Koheleth's  doctrine  of  Providence.  It 
is  by  the  help  of  this  golden  clue  that  Job  does  at 
last  emerge  from  his  darkness  into  the  full  light 
of  spiritual  certainty. 

This  book  of  Job  may  or  may  not  be  historic 
in  its  setting.  So  far  as  its  authority  is  con- 
cerned, this  is  no  more  a  matter  of  importance 
than  that  the  Prodigal  Son  should  have  been  a 
historic  character.  The  setting  of  Job  is,  how- 
ever, so  true  to  life  that  the  internal  evidence  of 
the  book  makes  it  more  than  probable  that  the 
story  is  historic.  The  book  does  not  profess  to 
be  a  work  of  history:  nobody  can  suppose  that 
Job  and  his  friends  actually  talked  to  one  another 
in  long  poems.  It  is  a  work  of  philosophy,  cast 
in  precisely  such  a  form  as  delights  the  Hebrew 
mind,  and  based  upon  what  was  perhaps  a  historic 
incident,  not  only  because  the  incident  was  mar- 
velously  adapted  to  serve  the  writer's  purpose  in 
the  development  of  his  thought,  but  also  from 
the  difficulty  which  abstract  thought  always  pre- 
sented to  the  Hebrew  people. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY   263 

The  literary  structure  of  the  book,  though  elab- 
orate, is  simple;  it  is  a  dramatic  poem  set  in  a 
framework  of  pure  epic:  the  prologue  of  chaps. 
1  and  2,  the  epilogue  in  the  closing  verses  of  the 
last  chapter,  and  a  few  verses  at  the  beginning  of 
the  last  act,  32:  1-5. 

Between  the  prologue  and  the  epilogue  lies  the 
drama  in  five  acts. 

The  scene  of  the  drama  of  Job  is  Hauran,  the 
lovely  volcanic  region  east  of  the  Jordan,  called 
in  Genesis  6  and  Lamentations  7  the  Land  of  Uz. 
The  period  of  the  story  is  the  patriarchal  age. 
and  it  is  to  be  observed  that  Job  is  not  an  Israel- 
ite, though  all  the  personages  are  descendants  of 
Abraham  through  Ishmael,  Esau,  and  the  sons  of 
Keturah.  Job  is  a  true  Arab  sheik  or  emir,  the 
village  judge,  the  priest  of  the  household,  very 
wealthy,  celebrated  for  wisdom  and  piety,  with 
a  deep  appreciation  of  sin  and  of  parental  respon- 
sibility, which  made  him  offer  sacrifices  for  any 
possible  transgressions  of  his  children  —  a  whole- 
hearted, that  is,  perfect,  man. 

Ill 

So  far  as  the  prologue  8  deals  with  the  earthly 
scene,  it  is  clearly  an  ancient  and  well-known  folk- 
tale; and  the  profound  thinker  and   deeply   in- 

*  Gen.   36:28.  8Job   1 — 2:10. 

T  Lam.   4:21. 


264         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

spired  writer  who  made  this  ancient  tale  the 
vehicle  of  a  new  revelation  knew  better  than  to 
change  the  time-honored  form  which,  by  its  fa- 
miliarity, would  make  all  the  more  intelligible 
the  profound  teachings  he  desired  to  base  upon 
it.  The  symbolic  numbers  and  the  poetic  struc- 
ture of  the  four  announcements  of  woe  are  left 
just  as  he  found  them;  but  the  scenes  in  heaven 
are  no  part  of  the  ancient  story.  They  are  the 
result  of  the  writer's  search  for  the  Absolute 
Good  through  the  dark  mystery  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  world,  and  it  appears  to  me  that  they 
are  intended  to  furnish  the  key  to  that  dark 
enigma,  the  sufferings  of  the  righteous,  which 
impelled  the  writer  to  his  deeper  search.  Inci- 
dentally in  these  scenes  appears  the  unalterable 
conviction  of  the  Hebrew  people  that  evil  as  well 
as  good  comes  from  the  hand  of  God.  There  is 
no  dualism  in  the  Bible,  no  kingdom  of  evil  per- 
petually at  war  with,  and  at  times  gaining  victory 
over,  the  will  of  God. 

The  first  heavenly  scene9  opens  with  the  as- 
sembly of  all  the  sons  of  God  (beings  created  be- 
fore the  present  earthly  order,  ministers  of  his 
to  do  his  pleasure)  in  such  a  council  or  divan  as 
eastern  monarchs  hold.  The  Satan  is  among 
them ;  he  is  not  a  devil,  but  one  of  the  sons  of 
God.  who  appears  to  be  in  charge  of  this  world 

°  1:  6-12. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    265 

and  comes  to  report  at  the  heavenly  divan  what 
he  has  learned  from  "  hurrying  to  and  fro  on  the 
earth  and  pacing  up  and  down  on  it ;"  (the  "  Busy 
One,"  as  the  Arabs  call  him;  the  "  Peripatetic," 
as  he  is  in  Peter's  epistle).  From  the  question 
put  to  him  by  God,  "  Hast  thou  considered  my 
servant  Job,  that  there  is  none  like  him  in  the 
earth  ?  "  it  may  be  conjectured  that  it  was  his  duty 
to  detect  the  sins  and  defects  of  men;  and  this 
accords  with  the  significance  of  the  word 
"  Satan,"  which  is  not  a  name,  but  a  title  —  the 
"  Adversary  "  of  men. 

The  pride  which  God  takes  in  his  servant  Job 
is  very  striking.  It  arouses  the  Satan's  passion 
for  detecting  faults.  "  Does  Job  serve  God  for 
naught  ?  "  Does  he  not  find  his  advantage  in  it 
—  is  he  not  rich  in  flocks  and  herds  and  children? 
"  Take  these  away  and  see  if  he  will  not  renounce 
thee  to  thy  face."  10  We  know  the  outcome  of 
the  first  trial,  and  how,  bereft  of  all  that  makes 

10  Godet,  in  his  Etudes  bibliques  —  a  work  to  which,  after 
twenty  years,  Budde,  who  had  just  discovered  it,  pays  tribute  — 
strikingly  points  out  a  fact  which  appears  to  have  been  hitherto 
overlooked,  namely,  that  the  Satan's  doubt  of  Job  reflects  upon 
God  himself.  "  For  if  the  best  of  men  cannot  love  God  unself- 
ishly, it  follows  that  he  is  incapable  of  making  himself  lovable." 
The  Satan's  error  touches  the  very  heart  of  God.  In  accepting 
his  challenge  to  prove  the  disinterested  love  of  Job,  God  is  in  fact 
accepting  a  challenge  to  prove  his  own  moral  character.  It  is  "  a 
solemn  wager  between  God  and  Satan."  This  view,  which  Budde 
adopts,  appears  to  me  to  lend  strong  support  to  the  view  of  the 
problem  here  advanced.  Budde's  Das  Buck  Hiob  appeared  after 
these  chapters  were  written,  and  came  to  my  knowledge  only  as  I 
was  giving  them  their  final  revision.  To  him  I  owe  the  introduc- 
tion to  the  volume  by  Godet. 


266         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

life  valuable,  Job  was  perfectly  submissive  to  the 
will  of  God : 

Naked  came  I    from  my  mother's  womb 
And  I  shall  return  thither  naked. 
"  The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath  taken, 
Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord."  lx 

This  is  the  groundwork  of  the  drama.  In  the 
beginning  Job  had  no  doubt  of  the  moral  char- 
acter of  God.  Though  he  had  bereft  him  of  all, 
"  Job  did  not  impute  wrong  to  God."  12  It  soon 
became  a  question  whether  he  must  be  forced  to 
do  so. 

Very  pathetic  is  the  appeal  of  Jehovah  in 
the  next  assembly  of  the  heavenly  divan.13  The 
Satan  had  mockingly  doubted  that  Job  would 
serve  God  "  for  naught."  "  Yet  still  he  holdeth 
fast  his  integrity,"  says  God,  "  although  thou 
movedst  me  against  him  to  afflict  him  for  naught." 
The  Satan  replies  with  an  adage  —  "  Satan's  old 
saw,"  Browning  calls  it  —  which  we  may  render 
freely,  "  Anything  to  save  dear  life," —  the  mean- 
est, lowest,  most  contemptible  doctrine  ever  put 
into  the  mouth  of  man  or  devil.  Again  God  per- 
mits the  Satan  to  test  his  servant.  The  living 
death,  elephantiasis,  falls  upon  the  whole-hearted 
man,  driving  him  from  the  home  which  else  he 
might  infect,  to  that  refuge  of  the  diseased,  the 

11  i :  21.  "  2-  i-6. 

12  i :  22;   Davidson's  translation. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    267 

towering  village  ash-heap,  built  of  the  refuse  of 
centuries.  Now  at  last  his  wife,  until  now 
equally  afflicted  with  himself  and  till  now  equally 
patient,  but  unable  to  endure  the  suffering  of  one 
so  dear,  urges  him  to  escape  from  living  death 
by  way  of  suicide;  to  "  greet  God  and  die."  14  In 
this  advice  Job,  to  his  utter  surprise,  finds  his  wife 
speaking  not  like  her  wise  self,  but  like  the  fool- 
ish woman.15  But  Job's  allegiance  is  still  whole- 
hearted : 

Shall  we  receive  good  at  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
And  shall  we  not  receive  evil  ? 

"  Not  even  with  his  lips,"  the  record  says,  "  did 
Job  sin."  16 

Now  there  is  far  more  in  this  prologue  than 
a  mere  stage-setting  for  the  drama  which  follows. 

14  This  word,  translated  so  mistakenly  "  curse  "  in  the  Author- 
ized Version,  is  translated  "  renounce  "  in  the  Revised  Version  and 
in  a  number  of  independent  translations.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  word 
barak,  "  bless."  The  analogy  of  present  usage,  not  only  among 
Semitic  peoples,  but  others,  appears  to  show  that  its  meaning  here 
is  simply  "  salute  "  or  "  greet."  The  same  word  is  used  both  for 
meeting  and  for  farewell,  in  many  places  besides  Syria.  The  Pro- 
vencal peasants  say  adieu  on  meeting  as  well  as  parting;  those  of 
the  Black  Forest  say  Griiss  Gott  (precisely  the  word  here)  in  the 
same  way.  One  is  reminded  of  the  Greek  xa^PeTe'  an(*  even  more 
significantly  of  the  Latin  moritari  salutamus,  which  is  precisely  the 
meaning  here.  There  is  no  necessary  suggestion  of  renunciation 
here,  although  in  I  :  5  there  evidently  is.  When  belief  in  personal 
immortality  is  not  held,  to  die  is  naturally  to  take  farewell  of  God. 
Laisse  la  Dieu,  et  meurs,  is  Godet's  translation. 

15  It  seems  not  amiss  here  for  a  woman  to  say  a  word  in  de- 
fense of  a  much  misunderstood  woman.  Job's  wife  must  have  suf- 
fered quite  as  much  as  Job  in  the  loss  of  their  children  and  little 
less  than,  he  in  the  loss  of  their  property.  The  only  woe  which 
is  to  her  intolerable  is  that  in  which  she  herself  has  no  share. 

l«Vs.   10. 


268         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Its  meaning  is  one  that  has  been  lost  sight  of  in 
the  interest  of  all  that  follows;  but  it  is  of  the 
greatest  importance.  To  whom  was  the  disinter- 
ested love  of  Job  to  be  proven,  except  to  those 
sons  of  God  to  whom  in  this  ordeal,  no  less  than 
to  Job,  the  moral  character  of  God  was  at 
stake? 17  For  the  sake  of  the  moral  lesson  to  the 
sons  of  God,  the  Satan  is  permitted  to  go  on  test- 
ing the  man  of  integrity  to  the  very  limit  of  his 
mortal  powers.  Let  us  apply  this  key  to  the  dark 
riddles  of  our  own  afflictions,  and  what  light 
breaks  in  upon  them  from  the  throne  of  God ! 

IV 

Job  had  probably  sat  for  some  months  on  his 
ash-heap  (months  of  vanity,  he  says,  had  been 
made  his  heritage,  and  nights  of  weariness  had 
been  allotted  him),  when  he  was  joined  by  three 
venerable  friends,  who  had  at  last  heard  of  his 
affliction  by  the  slow  methods  of  the  time.  As 
the  three  emirs  drew  near  the  place  where  Job 
sat  on  his  ash-heap,  they  were  appalled  by  the 
shocking  change  in  their  friend.  Hardly  recog- 
nizing him  in  his  sad  disfigurement,  they  invol- 
untarily made  the  customary  signs  of  mourning 
for  the  dead,  and  then,  crouching  down  beside 

17  As   Godet   says,    the   author   is   far   more   concerned   with   the 
conduct  of  God  than  with  that  of  man. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    269 

him,  for  seven  days,  the  period  of  mourning  for 
the  dead,  no  one  spoke  a  word. 

Such  sympathy,  all  the  more  expressive  and 
touching  that  it  was  mute,  brought  home  to  Job 
with  a  new  vividness  the  horror  of  his  situation. 
Till  this  time  he  had  been  a  model  of  patient  sub- 
mission, but  now,  with  a  sudden  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing which  everyone  who  has  suffered  long  will 
understand,  his  calm  resignation  is  changed  to  a 
tumult  of  wild  despair.  He  breaks  out  into  loud 
cries,  "  the  language  of  intolerable  pain." 

Here  begins  the  first  act  of  the  drama.18  Job 
opens  his  mouth  and,  like  another  Jeremiah, 
curses  his  day.  To  the  Hebrew  a  "  day  "  was 
almost  an  objective  reality;  "the  day  of  the 
Lord  "  was  the  embodiment  of  hope,  fear,  wrath, 
retribution;  the  day  of  one's  birth  was  in  a  pe- 
culiar sense  a  personal  possession.  To  Job  his 
birthday  was  a  malevolent  entity,  forcing  exist- 
ence upon  one  who  would  better  have  been  with- 
out it.  He  would  have  it  blotted  from  the  num- 
ber of  days,  that  it  might  never  recur  with  the 
revolving  year  to  make  men  wretched : 

Let  those  who  ban  days   (astrologers)  ban  it, 
(Those)   who  are  of  skill  to  rouse  the  Dragon.18 
Let  it  long  for  light  and  see  none, 
Nor  let  it  behold  the  eyelids  of  the  dawn ; 

18  Job,  chap.  3. 

19  Which  every  evening  swallowed   up  the  sun. 


270         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Because  it  shut  not  up  the  doors  of  the  womb  that  bore  me 
And  hid  not  trouble  from  mine  eyes! 

Then,  pierced  with  the  sharp  sense  of  the  in- 
justice of  things :  "  Why  does  God  force  the 
wretched  to  live  on?  Why  does  he,  even  now, 
refuse  me  the  last  privilege  of  death  and  nothing- 
ness? " 

Wherefore  is  light  given  to  the  wretched 

And  life  to  the  bitter  in  soul? 

Who  long  for  death  but  it  cometh  not, 

And  search  for  it  more  than  for  hid  treasure: 

Who  would  be  glad  even  to  exulting 

And  blithe,  when  they  find   a  grave. 

Job's  friends  are  shaken  out  of  their  kindly 
silence  by  the  terror  of  cries  like  these.  Why, 
this  is  not  their  idea  of  Job,  that  saintly  man, 
beloved  of  God!  How  can  such  a  man  speak 
words  so  unfitting?  There  must  be  some  dark 
reason,  some  secret  sin,  successfully  concealed 
from  men,  but  known  of  God,  so  to  change  his 
character. 

V 

It  is  of  course  Eliphaz,  the  man  gifted  with  the 
prophetic  spirit,  who  speaks  first.20  He  begins 
apologetically;  his  whole  speech  is  marked  by 
courtesy,  though  here  and  there  he  involuntarily 
reveals  his  secret  conviction  that  Job  is  a  great 
sinner.     But  this  he  does  not  mean  to  do.     With 

10  Act   II,   Job,   chaps.   4-14. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    27 1 

gentlest  words  lie  utters  his  surprise  that  one  who 
has  so  often  comforted  others  should  forget  the 
very  foundation  principle  of  all  comfort,  that  God 
never  forsakes  the  righteous  nor  leave :  them  to 
perish  under  affliction.  In  a  passage  of  unri- 
valed sublimity  he  tells  how  it  has  been  revealed 
to  him  that  even  the  angels  fall  short  of  perfec- 
tion; how  much  less  should  a  man,  who  is  in- 
herently sinful,  be  surprised  when  he  is  called  to 
suffer  the  punishment  of  his  sin : 

Now    to   myself    came   an    oracle    stealthily, 
And  mine  ear  caught  the  whisper  thereof; 
In  play  of  thought,  from   nightly  visions, 
When  deep  sleep  falls  upon  men, 
A  shudder  came  upon  me  and  a  trembling 
And  made  all  my  bones  to  quake. 
Then  a  wind  swept  over  my  face, 
The  hair  of  my  body  bristled  up, 
There  It  stood,  but  I  could  not  discover.    .    .    . 
I  gazed,  but  there  was  no  form  .  .  . 
Silence!    And  I   heard  a  murmuring  voice: 
"  Can  mortal  man   be  righteous  before   God  ? 
Can  man  be  pure  before  his  Maker? 
Behold,  in  his  servants  he  trusts  not, 
And  chargeth  his  angels  with  error."  21 

Perhaps  some  sudden  gesture  of  denial  or  de- 
spair on  the  part  of  Job  interrupts  and  irritates 
Eliphaz  here,  for  he  goes  on  to  dwell  on  the  folly 
of  those  who  would  protest  against  the  dispen- 
sations of  Providence.     In  words  of  proverbial 

2i4: 12-18. 


272         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

wisdom  he  reminds  Job  that  trouble  does  not 
come  of  itself,  nor  by  chance;  and  since  it  does 
come,  and  must  be  deserved,  he  proceeds  to  ad- 
vise Job  what  he  would  do  in  his  case.  He 
would  admit  God's  goodness  and  justice  in  these 
unparalleled  afflictions  (thus  virtually  confessing 
to  extraordinary  sin),  in  hope  that  thus  the  pun- 
ishment might  mercifully  be  remitted : 

But  /  —  I  would  seek  unto  God, 

And  to  God  would  I  make  my  appeal.22 

"  Only  own  up,"  he  urges,  "  and  then  all  bless- 
ings will  follow ;  famine  shall  not  visit  you,  war 
shall  not  assail  you,  calumny  shall  not  afflict  you, 
destruction  shall  not  overwhelm  you,  wild  beasts 
shall  not  menace  you.  Lo,"  he  concludes,  "  we 
have  searched  this  matter  to  its  depths,  and  it  is 
certainly  as  I  have  said,  therefore  give  thou  heed 
to  it."  23 

It  is  the  strongest  witness  to  the  marvelously 
high  moral  and  spiritual  character  of  Job  that 
at  this  moment  of  his  dark  despair  he  did  not 
yield  to  the  persuasions  of  Eliphaz,  and  give  way 
to  one  of  the  most  subtle  of  all  temptations  for 
a  sensitive  conscience  —  to  confess  to  sin  of 
which  conscience  does  not  accuse  one.  But  like 
Prometheus   on   Caucasus,    with    his  answer   to 

a  s  :  8.  2S  5  :  27- 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY   273 

Hermes,  who  urged  him  to  submit  to  Zeus  who 

could  afflict  him  more: 

I  would  not  barter  .... 
My  suffering  for  thy  service, 

so  Job  yields  not  one  jot  of  his  claim  to  right- 
eousness. 

The  short,  intense  questions  with  which  he  re- 
plies to  the  leisurely  eloquence  of  his  friend  show 
the  anguish  of  his  soul  over  the  scarcely  veiled 
assumption  of  Eliphaz  that  he  is  secretly  a  great 
sinner : 

Doth  the  wild  ass  bray  over  the  grass? 
Or  lowcth  the  ox  over  his  fodder? 
Can  it  be  eaten  —  the  tasteless  —  unsalted  ? 
Or  is  there  savor  in  the  white  of  an  egg?24 

His  afflictions  are  far  too  heavy,  he  reminds 
his  friends,  to  be  accounted  the  punishment  of 
ordinary  sins ;  nay,  so  heavy  are  they  that  now  he 
is  attacked  by  the  awful  dread  that  he  may  by 
their  very  heaviness  be  forced  into  sin. 

O  that  I  might  have  my  request, 

That  God  would  grant  my  longing; 

Even  that  God  would  please  to  crush  me, 

That  he  would  loose  his  hand  and  cut  me  off; 

Then  should  this  still  be  my  comfort 

(I  would  leap  amidst  unsparing  pain) 

That  I  have  not  denied  the  words  of  the  Holy  One.25 

He  trembles  for  his  powers  of  endurance  —  is 
his  strength  that  of  stone,  or  of  brass,  that  he 

J«6:  s,  6.  ™6:&  ff. 


274  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

should  come  out  sinless  from  such  an  ordeal? 
This,  in  the  extremity  of  anguish,  is  what  occu- 
pies him  —  the  dread  of  sin.  The  intensity  of 
this  dread  wrings  from  him  a  cry  of  remonstrance 
with  God : 

0  remember  that  my  life  is  but  a  breath, 
That  mine  eye  will  never  again  see  good !  26 

God  was  his  friend :  he  cannot  believe  that  he 
will  not  be  again,  but  it  will  be  too  late;  "  Thou 
shalt  seek  me  and  I  shall  not  be  here."  27  He 
cannot  endure  the  thought: 

So  therefore  I,  I  will  not  curb  my  mouth, 

1  will  speak  in  the  anguish  of  my  spirit; 

I  will  make  my  plaint  in  the  bitterness  of  my  soul. 

Those  who  have  gone  to  the  bottom  of  the 
dark  pit  of  human  anguish  can  find  no  stronger 
consolation  than  the  knowledge  that  God  did  not 
impute  sin  to  Job  for  his  petulant  cry : 

Am  I  a  sea  or  a  monster  of  the  deep, 
That  thou  settest  a  watch  over  me?28 

or  when,  calling  to  mind  that  well-known  psalm 
in  the  words  of  which  his  humble  soul  had  doubt- 
less often  delighted  to  express  its  joy  in  God,  he 
exclaims  in  bitter  irony :  "  What  is  man  that  thou 
shouldst  make  so  much  over  him,"  29  trying  and 
testing  him  day  by  day.     "  If  I  have  sinned,  what 

29  y.  7.  w  7: 12. 

"7:8.  B  7=  17.  20;   cf.   Ps.  8:  4. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY     2?5 

is  that  to  thee,  O  thou  Watcher  of  mankind?" 
I  so  weak,  so  insignificant,  the  creature  of  a  day? 
Of  course,  the  friends  are  shocked,  and  Bildad 
the  Shuhite,  the  typical  Wise  Man,  undertakes 
to  set  him  right.30  There  is  no  accent  of  sym- 
pathy, no  shade  of  kindly  apology,  in  the  words 
of  proverbial  wisdom  which  this  sage  utters.  He 
makes  no  appeal  to  revelation,  like  his  prophetic 
friend,  Eliphaz.  All  the  world  knows  that  God 
never  sends  undeserved  suffering:  his  glib  de- 
scription of  the  short-lived  prosperity  of  the 
wicked  may  have,  if  Job  pleases,  a  double  mean- 
ing ;  he  may  apply  it  to  his  own  case,  or  may  con- 
sider it  a  ground  of  hope  that  his  troubles  will 
not  last  long. 

Behold  God  will  not  spurn  the  perfect 

Nor  take  evil  doers  by  the  hand ; 

When  he  shall  fill  thy  mouth  with  laughter 

And  thy  lips  with  song, 

They  that  hate  thee  shall  be  clothed  with  shame, 

And  the  tent  of  the  wicked  shall  perish. 

Job  is  goaded  almost  to  desperation  by  Bil- 
dad's  platitudes.  Not  because  he  disputes  them 
— "of  a  truth  I  know  it  is  thus;"31  but  be- 
cause they  confirm  the  awful  dread  of  his  soul 
that  the  Almighty  acts  not  according  to  moral 
principles,  but  arbitrarily.  How  cope  with  one 
so  inscrutable  and  so  mighty : 

»°Chap.  8.  319=  2. 


276         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Have  recourse  to  force?    He  is  all  powerful! 
To  justice?  before  whom  shall  I  appear?32 

Here  first  appears  that  idea  of  law  which  is  the 
golden  clue  to  the  meaning  of  this  book  and  to 
its  place  in  the  great  Wisdom  trilogy.  God  is 
not,  in  Job's  mind,  apart  from  law,  nor  is  he  the 
strong  Power  that  bends  law  to  his  will.  He  is 
himself  the  Fountain  of  law.  As  in  human  expe- 
rience law  in  the  last  analysis  is  judge-made,  so 
God  is  himself  the  court  of  last  appeal ;  and  the 
horror  of  Job's  position  is  that  this  Supreme 
Court,  this  Fountain  and  Source  of  law,  cannot 
be  relied  upon  for  justice: 

Though  I  am  innocent,  he  will  declare  me  guilty.53 

His  consciousness  of  innocence  asserts  itself  in 
one  wild  cry  of  despair  34 :  "  Innocent  ?  /  am. 
Yet  I  care  not  for  life :  I  despise  existence :  what 
matters  it,  after  all?  For,  I  dare  to  say  it,  The 
guiltless  and  the  guilty  he  destroyeth  alike." 

Yet  he  cannot  quite  admit  that  God  is  in  fact 
so  different  from  what  he  has  long  believed  him 
to  be.  "If  it  be  not  he,  who  then  is  it?"35 
Can  another  be  stronger  than  God?  It  is  the 
blinding  mystery  of  pain  put  into  words  for  the 
first  time  in  human  experience.  How  often,  how 
often  since  then,  have  human  hearts  stumbled  and 
fallen  in  its  darkness !     But  this  is  not  sin ;  else 

83  9: 19.  84  9: 21,  22. 

K  9 :  20.  "9:  24c. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY  277 

had  the  despairing  cry  on  Golgotha  never  been 
uttered. 

But  to  Job  all  is  dark;  against  such  a  Being 
as  now  with  awful  misgivings  he  thinks  he  has 
to  do,  he  can  bring  no  argument.  God  is  indeed 
the  Judge ;  but  he  is  an  irresponsible  Judge,  mak- 
ing law  the  instrument  of  his  capricious  will,  like 
many  eastern  judges  of  Job's  acquaintance,  only 
with  this  difference : 

He  is  not  a  man  like  me,  whom  I  might  answer, 

That  we  might  come  together  in  judgment; 

There  is  no  arbiter  between  us,  who  can  lay  his  hand  upon 

us   both ; 
Who  would  remove  his  rod  from  me, 
So  that  the  dread  of  him  should  not  unman  me.36 

A  deep  gulf  has  opened  between  Job  and  him 
whom  he  once  thought  his  friend ;  his  only  hope 
is  in  a  go-between,  and  he  knows  of  none : 

If  I  am  wicked,  woe  unto  me ! 

And  if  righteous,  yet  may  I  not  lift  up  my  head! 

Sated   with   shame  and  seeing  my  misery; 

For  should  I  uplift  it,  thou  wouldst  hunt  me  like  a  lion 

And  show  thyself  mighty   upon  me.37 

Daring  words  these :  Prometheus  was  not  more 
defiant ;  but  it  is  his  very  consciousness  of  recti- 
tude that  breaks  him  clown. 

Oh,  let  him  leave  me,  let  him  depart  from  me. 
That  I  may  breathe  a  little  before  I  go  hence 
Never  to  return  !  38 

38  9:  3-2-34.  M  Io:  2ob'  2ia" 

n  10:  15  f- 


278  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

There  is  no  hope  of  immortality  in  this  im- 
portunate entreaty,  no  expectation  of  a  "  world 
that  sets  this  right."  To  him,  God  being  what 
he  seems  to  be,  there  is  no  such  world;  his  best 
hope  is  Sheol : 

The  land  of  darkness  and  of  the  blackness  of  death, 

A  land  of  gloom,  as  the  blackness  of  death, 

Where  there  is  no  order  and  the  shining  is  like  midnight.39 

Zophar,  the  man  who  always  thinks  just  right, 
is  irritated  by  the  wild  boldness  of  his  friend's 
thoughts.40  He  utters  with  no  circumlocution 
what  the  others  have  only  hinted :  Job  must  have 
sinned.  Zophar  is  a  good  man,  and  he  honestly 
seeks  Job's  good.  One  of  the  sublimest  passages 
in  the  book  is  his  description  of  the  perfect  wis- 
dom of  God : 

Wouldst  thou  sound  the  depth  of  God? 

Wouldest  thou  reach  to  the  perfection  of  the  Almighty? 

Heights  of  heaven  —  what  canst  thou  do? 

Deeper  than  Sheol  — what  canst  thou  know? 

Longer  than  the  earth  its  measure, 

And  broader  than  the  sea.41 

Like  the  others,  Zophar  brings  up  the  argu- 
ment from  expediency :  "  Direct  thy  heart 
toward  God,  remove  iniquity  from  thee,"  42  he 
says,  then  your  troubles  will  be  over.  The  wish 
for  death  which  you  have  expressed  can  only  be 
felt  by  the  wicked. 

M  10:  21  b,    22.  41  11 :  7—9. 

«°Chap.    11.  «  11:  i3ff. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY  279 
The  insinuation  goads  Job  to  satire : 

Forsooth   ye  arc    [intelligent]    folk, 
With  you  wisdom  dies  out ! 
But  I  too  have  understanding  like  you, 
My  teaching  is  blameless,  pure.43 

And  he  perceives  that  the  facts  do  not  fit  their 
theories : 

The  careless  man  despises  God's  time  of  doom, 
At  the  appointed  time  his  foot  remains  firm ; 
Prosperous  are  the  toils  of  the  destroyer, 
And  those  who  provoke  God  have  security.44 

While  the  just  man,  the  man  who  had  been 
God's  acknowledged  friend,  is  unjustly  permitted 
to  become  a  laughing-stock : 

He  who  called  on  God  and  he  anszvered  him, 
The  just,  the  innocent  —  a   laughing-stock!45 

All  that  his  friends  have  to  say  is  taught  in 
nature  and  in  human  history,  as  well  as  in  their 
philosophy.  But  where  in  the  logic  of  events  is 
there  room  for  his  experience?  And  yet  how 
can  he  believe  the  witness  of  his  own  experience  ? 
How  can  God  be  other  than  just,  if  only  he 
knows  all  the  facts  ? 

But  I  —  to  the  Almighty  would  I   speak. 
I  long  to  make  my  plea  unto  God.46 

His  soul  revolts  from  the  untruths  which  lie 
concealed  at  the  bottom  of  his  friend's  pious  rea- 

41  12:  2,    3,   Cheyne's   translation.  **i2:4. 

4'  12:  s,   6,   Cheyne.  **  13:  3- 


28o         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

sonings.  "  Will  you  say  that  which  is  not  right 
for  God?  Will  you  utter  falsehood  in  his  be- 
half?" Not  even  to  justify  God  will  Job  so 
stain  his  soul.  He  does  not  understand  him. 
God  must  be  altogether  other  than  that  which 
Job  supposed,  but  he  will  speak  the  truth,  come 
what  may.  Job  challenges  God  to  convict  him 
of  sin : 

Come  what  may,  I  will  take  my  flesh  in  my  teeth 
And  will  put  my  life  in  my  hand ; 
Lo,  he  may  slay  me —  I  have  ceased  to  hope! 
Still  let  me  defend  my  ways  to  his  face.47 

"  There  is  no  worse  to  such  a  woe  as  mine," 
exclaims  Heracles  when  his  friend  Nessus  warns 
him  that  blasphemy  may  bring  a  worse  woe  upon 
him. 

Job  challenges  God  to  convict  him  of  sin;  he 
could  acquit  himself  but  for  these  terrors  which 
cow  his  courage,  but  change  not  aught  of  verity : 

Only  do  thou  two  thing's  unto  me 

And   I  will  not  hide  myself  from  thy  face, 

Withhold  thine  hand  from  me 

And  let  not  thy  terror  unman  me, 

Then  do  thou  accuse  and  I  will  answer; 

Or  let  me  speak  and  do  thou  respond.48 

But  no  answer  comes,  and  Job  sinks  into  de- 
spair ;  nothing  is  certain  but  "  the  sad  finality  of 
death  " : 

«7 13: 14  f.  *»  13: 20  ff. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    28 1 

Man,  born  of  woman, 
Scant  of  days  and  full  of  unrest, 
Cometh  up  like  a  flower  and  withereth, 
Fleeth  like  the  shadow  and  abideth  not.49 

Yet  even  with  the  thought  of  death  comes  a 
gleam  of  hope : 

Oh,  if  the  man  once  dead  could  live  again! 

All  the  days  of  my  service   [in  the  grave]   would  I   wait 

[like  the  sentinel  on  duty] 
Till  my  relief  came. 

[Then]  thou  wouldst  call  and  I  would  answer  thee, 
Thou  wouldst  yearn  toward  the  work  of  thine  hands.60 

But  no: 

Thou  imagincst  sins  with  which  to  charge  me; 
So  thou  destroyest  the  hope  of  man.51 

Thus  the  second  act  closes.  It  leaves  Job  in 
hopeless  darkness,  for  his  theology,  which  is  that 
of  his  friends,  has  brought  him  no  light,  and  he 
knows  nothing  of  what  we  know  from  the  pro- 
logue. Yet  in  the  depth  of  Job's  despair  he  has 
not  "  taken  farewell  of  God."  Though  he  has 
broken  out  in  passionate  exclamations  against 
him,  his  heart  still  turns  to  God  as  a  flower  to  the 
sunlight.  This  God,  against  whom  he  has  been 
so  vehemently,  almost  blasphemously,  crying,  is 
indeed  no  real  God.  To  the  true  God,  the  Abso- 
lute Good,  he  clings  with  the  hold  of  very  des- 
peration. 

*»  14:  iff.  Mi4:i4ff.  "14:16,  17. 


282         HEBREW.  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

VI 
Again  in  the  third  act 52  the  friends  rebuke  Job 
no  longer  with  any  attempt  at  gentleness.  Stu- 
pidly mistaking  his  impassioned  assertions  of  in- 
nocence for  a  claim  of  perfection,  Eliphaz  53  ac- 
cuses him  of  undermining  the  cardinal  truth  that 
the  government  of  the  world  is  just  and  right. 
In  reply,  Job  turns  from  these  "  miserable  com- 
forters "  to  the  justice  of  the  Judge  of  the  whole 
earth.  Truth  must  prove  itself  before  him  who, 
with  all  his  doubts,  Job  feels  in  his  innermost 
heart,  is  true.  So  he  appeals  from  the  God  he 
thought  he  knew  to  the  God  who  is.  He  cannot 
but  believe  that  somehow  righteousness  will  as- 
sert itself,  that 

The  righteous  shall  hold  on  his  way 

And  the  clean  of  hands  shall  wax  stronger  and  stronger." 

"  At  last,  far  off,"  things  will  come  right,  but 
not  for  him : 

My  days  are  past, 

My  plans  are  broken  off  — 

The  treasures  of  my  heart.65 

Bildad's  taunts  56  are  very  bitter,  but  Job  in  his 
reply  refuses  to  account  to  his  comforters  for  his 
conduct.     The  unutterable  woe  of  his  soul  is  that 

"Chaps.   IS-21.  M  17 :  «■ 

MChap.   15.  "Chap.   18 

0*17:  9. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    283 

God,  the  Judge  of  the  whole  earth,  is  not  treating 

him  justly : 

Behold  I  cry  out  "Violence!"  and  am  not  heard; 

I  shriek  for  help,  but  there  is  no  justice, 

He  hath   fenced  up  my  way  and  I  cannot  pass, 

And  over  my  path  he  hath  set  darkness. 

He  hath  stripped  me  of  mine  honor 

And  taken  the  crown  from  my  head.07 

Yet  is  this  possible?  Does  this  sorrow  come 
from  God?  He  cannot  bring  himself  to  believe 
anything  so  contrary  to  all  that  he  has  hitherto 
experienced.  It  cannot  be  that  God  is  his  perse- 
cutor;  nay,  rather  he  will  be  his  avenger  : 

For  I  know  that  my  Avenger  is  alive, 
And  that  last  of  all  he  will  rise  upon  the  earth, 
When  my  skin  has  been  destroyed  he  will  rise  up, 
When  I  have  no  longer  any  flesh  I  shall  see  God; 
I  shall  see  him  and  he  ivill  be  on  my  side.™ 

The  unimpeachable  witness  of  his  own  soul 
rises  triumphant  above  all  the  witness  of  facts: 
God  is  not  his  enemy.  There  is  a  union  between 
God  and  his  soul  which  no  facts  can  break;  it 
will  be  manifest  some  day  : 

My  soul  within  me  faints  with  longing  for  this.59 

It  is  not  the  resurrection  which  Job  here  an- 
ticipates. He  has  here  brought  to  light  a  truth 
even  more  glorious  —  a  truth  of  which  the  res- 
urrection is  one  illustration:  that  those  who  are 

•T  19:  7  ff.  ^lg-^st.  "19:27c. 


284         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

bound  to  God  by  truth  and  love  cannot,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  be  separated  from  him. 

Zophar60  could  not  understand  such  high 
thoughts,  and  his  biting  sarcasm  and  jeering  con- 
tempt had  the  natural  effect;  they  dragged  Job 
down  from  the  serene  height  of  truth  which  with 
infinite  suffering  he  had  gained,  and  plunged  him 
once  again  into  the  abyss  of  doubt.  Now  he 
openly  questions  the  righteousness  of  God's  gov- 
ernment of  the  world.61  He  rules;  of  that  there 
can  be  no  doubt;  but  does  he  rule  justly?  An 
unjust  God  is  no  true  God.  Job  abhors  the 
wicked:  does  God? 

One  dieth  in  his  full  strength 

Wholly  at  ease  and  tranquil, 

His  loins  are  full  of  fat 

And  his  bones  are  moist  with  marrow ; 

And    another    dieth    with    bitter    soul, 

And  hath  never  tasted  good ; 

Yet  alike  they  lie  down  in  the  dust 

And  the  worms  cover  them  both.62 

In  a  long  passage  of  unequaled  vigor  and 
pathos  Job  shows  with  how  little  justice  retribu- 
tion is  meted  out  in  this  world.  He  challenges 
Bildad  to  maintain  the  truth  of  his  assertions : 

How  oft  is  it  that  the  lamp  of  the  wicked  is  put  out?  63 

80  Chap.  20.  e2  21 :  23  ff. 

«2i:  7  ff.  "21:  17  ff;   cf.    18:  5  ff. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    285 

The  third  act  ends  with  the  cruel  doubt  to 
resolve  which  Job  was  suffering  all  this  pain  :  Is 
God  good  ? 

Yet,  though  Job  seems  to  have  made  no  prog- 
ress, he  really  has  done  so.  He  has  had  a  fleeting 
realization  of  the  deathless  bond  which  binds  him 
to  God,  and  a  clear,  though  transient,  view  of  a 
life  with  him  beyond  the  grave. 

VII 

In  the  fourth  act  e4  Eliphaz  speaks  with  words 
of  scarcely  veiled  contempt.  He  openly  accuses 
Job  of  sin,  and  once  more  advises  him  to  confess 
and  make  peace  with  God  for  the  sake  of  the 
good  that  will  come  of  it.  This  unworthy 
thought  mars  one  of  the  most  sublime  passages 
in  the  book: 

Reconcile  thyself  with  him  now  and  be  at  peace. 
Thereby  shall  good  come  to  thee. 
So  shall  the  Almighty  be  thy  precious  ore 
And  as  silver  purchased  with  toil.65 

Job  hardly  hears  Eliphaz;  he  is  absorbed  in  the 
dark  mystery  which  surrounds  him.  The  im- 
possibility of  establishing  his  innocence  to  his 
friends'  satisfaction  throws  him  back  upon  that 
conviction  of  God's  justice  which  Zophar  had  so 
ruthlessly  shaken.  He  begins  to  have  a  true 
conception  of  universal  law ;  it  is  no  longer,  like 

"Chaps.   22-31.  "22:  21  ff. 


286  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  Heavenly  Wisdom,  a  friendly  power,  outside 
of  God,  nor,  like  the  Vanity  of  Koheleth,  an  irre- 
sponsible power  subordinate  to  God ;  dimly  he 
sees  that  law  resides  in  God,  in  his  very  function 
as  Judge  of  the  universe;  and  so  he  begins  to 
long  for  him  with  a  new  desire,  such  as  those 
righteous,  prosperous  friends  of  his  have  never 
dreamed  of: 

Oh,  that  I  knew  where  to  find  him! 

I  would  press  on  even  to  his  seat   [the  judge's  bench  in 

court], 
I  would  set  out  my  case  before  him, 
I    would    fill    my    mouth    with    arguments     [the    eastern 

method   of  self-defense]. GG 

Job  has  no  longer  any  doubt  of  that  of  which 
a  little  while  before  he  had  felt  but  the  dim  hope. 
If  he  could  find  God,  he  would  find  him  just. 

For  a  moment  he  had  admitted  the  possibility 

of  unconscious  guilt,  but  he  knew  in  his  heart 

that  this  was  not  the  case : 

Then  it  would  be  an  upright  man  pleading  with  him, 
And  I  should  be  once  for  all  acquitted  by  my  Judge.67 

But  where  to  find  this  Judge? 

If  I  go  eastward,  he  is  not  there; 

If  I  go  to  the  west,  I  find  him  not. 

Is  he  busy  in  the  north?     I  cannot  see  him. 

Is  he  hiding  in  the  south?     I  cannot  discover  him.68 

If  God  cannot  attend  to  the  cases  of  all  men  at 
once,  why  at  least  does  he  not  go  on  circuit,  like 

*  23:  3.  "23:  7.  "23:  8  £ 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    287 

other   judges,   appoint   set   times   when   the  op- 
pressed can  plead  their  cause  before  him? 

Why  are  not  times  reserved  by  the  Almighty, 
And  why  do  not  they  who  know  him  see  his  days 
[of  assize]  ?  09 

All  sorts  of  oppressions  are  going  on  in  the 
world,  and  he  ought  to  look  after  them.  Those 
in  power  rob  the  poor : 

Naked,  they  slink  away  without  clothes ; 
Hungry,  they  must  bear  the  sheaves; 
They  tread  the  winevats  —  and  thirst; 
Yet  God  heedeth  not  the  wrong!70 

To  this  Bildad71  repeats  the  general  truth  he 
has  before  urged,  that  God  is  great,  and  all  crea- 
tures are  imperfect  in  his  sight : 

Dominion  and  dread  are  with  him, 
Author  of  Peace  in  his  high  places ! 
Behold  even  the  moon,  it  doth  not  shine 
And  the  stars  are  not  pure  —  in  his  sight. 
How  much  less  that  worm  —  a  man, 
And  that  creeping  thing  —  the  son  of  man! 

The  passage  which  has  been  added  to  Bildad's 
speech,  26:5-14,  carries  on  the  thought  of  the 
majesty  of  God  as  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  how 

••24: 1  ff. 

T0  Vss.   10  ff. 

"Chaps.  25,  26:  5-14.  I  have  adopted  the  view  of  some  scholars 
that  a  slight  displacement  has  occurred  in  the  material  of  Act  IV, 
that  26:  5—14  should  be  added  to  Bildad's  speech  and  27:  7 —  28:  28 
should  be  given  to  Zophar,  who  in  the  present  arrangement  has  no 
speech  in  this  act. 


288         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

He  draweth  a  circle  upon  the  face  of  the  waters 
To  the  bound  where  light  touches  darkness ; 72 

how 

By  his  power  he  agitates  the  sea 
And  he  is  of  skill  to  smite  its  pride; 
By  his  breath  the  heavens  grow  bright 
And  he  woundeth  the  fleet  serpent  [the  dragon  that  swal- 
lows the  sun  at  night,  the  old  sun  myth]. 
Lo  these  are  but  the  edges  of  his  ways ; 
And  how  slight  a  whisper  hath  been  heard  of  him. 
But  the  thunder  of  his  power,  who  can  understand? 

To  all  this  Job  answers :  73  Yes,  he  is  great, 
but  that  is  not  the  question.  Is  he  good?  The 
awful  fear  which  is  too  deep  to  trouble  his  shal- 
low friends  returns  upon  him.  He  will  maintain 
his  own  integrity : 

I  hold  fast  my  righteousness  and  will  not  let  it  go; 
My  heart  shall  not  upbraid  me  so  long  as  I  live.74 

In  Zophar's  third  speech  75  he  returns  to  the 
original  contention  that  it  is  the  wicked  who  get 
punished;  the  obvious  inference  being  that  Job 
belongs  in  this  category.  With  a  refinement  of 
cruelty,  he  brings  in  Job's  afflictions  to  point  his 
moral : 

This  is  the  doom  of  the  wicked  man  before  God, 

And  this  is  the  heritage  of  oppressors  from  the  Almighty, 

If  his  children  be  multiplied  it  is  for  the  sword; 


n  The  figure  that  we  saw  in  Wisdom's  monologue. 

"26:  1-4  ;   27:  i-6.  "27:51.  "27:7  —  28:28. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    289 

A  whirlwind  filchcth  him  away  hy  night, 

The  east  wind  catchcth  him  up  and  he  is  gone. 

According  to  this  division  of  the  speeches,  it 
is  Zophar  who  gives  the  well-known  and  very 
magnificent  description  of  the  search  for  wis- 
dom, under  the  figure  of  mining  operations. 

In  answer  to  Zophar's  accusations  and  exceed- 
ingly glittering  generalities,  Job  sums  up  all  the 
circumstances  of  his  case,  reviewing  his  past  and 
submitting  all  its  evidence,  point  by  point,  to  the 
justice  of  God  :  7G 

O  that  I  were  as  in  months  of  old, 

As  in  the  days  when  God  watched  over  me ! 

When  his  lamp  shone  over  my  head 

And  by  his  light  I  walked  through  darkness ! 

As  I  was  in  my  autumn  days 

When  the  favor  of  God  was  upon  my  tent; 

When  the  Almighty  was  yet  with  me 

And  my  children  round  about  me  — 

When  I  went  through  the  city  to  the  gate 

And  set  up  my  seat  [as  judge]  in  its  spacious  arch; 

The  blessing  of  the  perishing  came  upon  me 
And  I  made  the  widow's  heart  sing  for  joy. 

I  was  eyes  to  the  blind 
And  feet  was  I  to  the  lame, 
To  the  poor  I  was  as  a  father, 

And  I  searched  out  the  cause  of  the  stranger.     [The  por- 
trait of  a  good  judge.] 

"29:  2  ff. 


290  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

In  contrast,  he  recapitulates  all  the  dishonors 
that  have  been  poured  out  upon  him;  how  the 
children  mock  him,  and  so  on.  But  this  is  not 
his  grief;  it  is  something  quite  different: 

I  cry  to  thee  and  thou  answereth  me  not; 
I  stand  up,  and  thou  eyest  me ; 
Thou  art  changed  and  become  my  cruel  foe 
And  dost  press  me  hard  with  thy  strong  hand.77 

Again  he  passes  his  life  in  review ;  it  has  been 
pure  and  honest  and  kindly,  its  motive  always  re- 
spect to  the  judgments  of  God.  How  could  his 
friends  accuse  him  of  secret  sin?  O,  that  there 
were  one  ready  to  put  him  to  a  searching  test : 

Oh  that  I  had  one  who  would  hear  me ! 

Here   is  my  signature    [to  his  defense],  let  the  Almighty 

answer  me ! 
Let  my  Adversary  zvrite  out  his  indictment! 
I  would  put  it  on  my  shoulder  [as  kings  their  insignia  of 

royalty] 
And  bind  it  about  me  like  a  chaplet ; 
I  would  tell  him  the  number  of  my  steps 
I  would  draw  near  him  like  a  prince !  78 

And  with  one  last  protestation  of  his  inno- 
cence 79  the  tortured  man  draws  his  robe  over 
his  head  and  is  silent.  "  The  pleas  of  Job  are 
ended !  " 

Thus  closes  the  fourth  act,  with  the  three 
friends  silenced,  though  not  convinced,  and  Job 
still  in  the  darkness,  holding  fast  to  his  integrity, 

77  30:  20  ff.  783i:35-37-  n  3i :  38-40. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    291 

and  yearning  with  unutterable  desire  for  that  God 
who  has  so  strangely  shown  himself  to  be  his 
adversary,  yet  whom  he  cannot  but  trust  in  spite 
of  all,  since  he  is  also  his  witness  and  knows  the 
truth. 

VIII 

With  the  fifth  act  of  the  drama  of  Job  80  a  new 
figure  appears  upon  the  scene  81 —  Elihu,  a  youth- 
ful Aramean  of  great  ability,  who,  one  of  a  grad- 
ually growing  circle  of  hearers,  has  listened  re- 
spectfully to  all  that  has  been  said,  though  with 
feelings  of  increasing  displeasure.  Silence  hav- 
ing now  fallen  upon  the  assembly,  he  introduces 
himself  as  one  perfectly  competent  to  set  all  this 
trouble  right.  He  begins  with  a  long  apology  to 
the  three  sages  for  intervening  where  they  had 
been  put  to  silence,  and  offers  himself  as  that 
representative,82  that  Day's  man,  or  arbiter,  whom 
Job  has  desired,  to  whom  he  may  speak  freely. 

He  goes  on  to  review  Job's  complaints :  He 
had  said  that  God  does  not  answer  his  cries. 
Elihu  replies 83  that  he  does  answer  in  many 
ways,  if  Job  will  but  listen.  Job  has  insisted  that 
God  has  unjustly  inflicted  him,  but  it  is  impos- 
sible God  should  be  unjust,  and  history  proves  it 
so.  He  challenges  Job  to  refute  the  line  of  argu- 
ment, and  as  Job  makes  no  reply,  he  continues, 

80  Chap.    32  —  42:6.  e233=6ff. 

«32:2ff.  e3  33  ■  14  ff. 


292         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

addressing  his  remarks  directly  to  the  three  sages, 
but  indirectly  to  Job.84  To  suppose  that  God  can 
do  wrong  is  not  only  absurd,  but  impious.85 
Elihu  again  pauses  for  reply,  but  as  Job  makes 
none,  he  goes  on  to  set  him  right  in  his  ideas  of 
God.86  Job  has  said  that  righteousness  does  not 
profit  a  man ;  but  this  is  inconceivable ; 87  it  must 
profit  someone ;  it  cannot  profit  God,  therefore  it 
must  profit  man.  He  goes  on  to  deal  with  the 
problem  of  pain ; 8S  afflictions  are  sent  either  for 
discipline  or  as  a  warning.  Next,  as  to  the  divine 
nature;  it  is  incomprehensible,  and  Job  ought  to 
have  known  better  than  to  try  to  understand  it.89 
His  eloquence  is  interrupted  by  the  approach 
of  a  wild  eastern  storm.90  He  becomes  incoher- 
ent, rallies  his  courage,  and  as  the  tempest  be- 
comes more  terrible  he  breaks  off : 

The  Almighty  ....  we  cannot  find  him  out; 

He  is  excellent  in  power. 

In  judgment  he  will  not  afflict.01 

The  terrified  acknowledgment  bursts  forth : 

Men  do  therefore  fear  him! 

and  with  one  last  humiliated  confession,  this  man 
so  full  of  wisdom  pauses  in  abject  fright : 

He  regardeth  not  any  that  are  wise  of  heart !  82 


M34:  J.    2- 

8T35:3ff- 

90  36:  27  —  37:  1 

85  34:  10  ff. 

88  36:  is  f- 

91  37:  23. 

8"  Chap.  35- 

••36:  26  f. 

"37:24. 

SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    293 

Out  of  this  fearful  whirlwind  the  Adversary 
whom  Job  has  so  passionately  invoked,  for  whose 
appearance  he  has  so  intensely  longed,  believing, 
in  the  face  of  facts,  that  he  would  prove  to  be 
just  if  he  could  but  be  found  —  this  Adversary, 
God,  speaks  to  Job.  Not,  however,  with  a  cate- 
gorical reply  to  any  one  of  the  questions  which 
Job,  in  the  wild  ferment  and  fever  of  his  soul,  had 
so  vehemently,  so  importunately,  asked.  It  is 
not  thus  that  God  justifies  himself.  Instead,  he 
reveals  himself.  To  know  God  is  to  have  all 
doubts  and  questions  satisfied,  and  so  Job  was 
satisfied  now.  Not  that  God  revealed  to  him 
any  of  those  higher  mysteries  of  his  moral  gov- 
ernment which  had  so  perplexed  him ;  he  gave  no 
proof  of  his  goodness  except  the  fact  of  his 
power.  The  keen  irony  in  the  questions  of  Je- 
hovah is  for  agnostics  of  all  ages.93  "  Can  you 
spell  out  the  mere  alphabet  of  the  material  uni- 
verse? "  he  asks  Job.  "  How  then  can  you  ex- 
pect to  comprehend  the  deepest  of  all  my  mys- 
teries, the  mysteries  of  my  moral  methods,  the 
mystery  of  pain?  " 

Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth? 
Declare  if  thou  hast  understanding  .... 
Hast   thou    commanded    the   morning   since   thy   days   be- 
gan? .... 
Have  the  gates  of  death  been  revealed  to  thee?  .... 
Where  is  the  path  to  the  abode  of  light? 

83  Chap.  38  —  40:  2. 


294         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Canst  thou  lift  up  thy  voice  to  the  clouds,  that  abundance 

of  waters  may  cover  thee?  .... 
Hast  thou  given  the  horse  his  might? 
Hast  thou  clothed  his  neck  with  the  quivering  mane? 
Doth  the  eagle  soar  aloft  at  thy  command 
And  build  his  eyrie  on  high? 

Is  he  who  contendeth  with  the  Almighty  corrected? 
Let  him  who  disputeth  with  God  reply. 

Job's  question  has  not  been  answered  nor  his 
doubts  met,  except  by  the  appeal  to  the  wonders 
of  nature,  which  are  so  far  beyond  the  power  of 
Job  to  comprehend.  And  yet  "  the  unending 
miracle  that  passes  before  our  eyes  every  day," 
"  the  perpetual  self- justifying  course  of  a  har- 
monious universe,"  94  does  answer  the  question, 
does  show  that  there  is  an  immutable  basis  of 
goodness,  because  the  harmonious  universe  is  the 
witness  to  God.     And  so  Job  answers  God : 

Lo,   I   am  insignificant.    What  can  I   reply  to  thee? 

I  lay  my  hand  on  my  mouth. 
Once  have  I  spoken  ....  but  I  will  not  speak  again 

Twice  ....  but  I  will  add  no  more.96 

Job  takes  back  nothing  that  he  has  said,  but  he 
cannot,  after  all,  answer  God  as  he  had  supposed 
he  could.  He  sees  now  that  God  is  a  Being 
whose  ways  are  past  finding  out  by  finite  man. 
Yet  he  has  not  reached  the  point  where  he  can 
rest  satisfied  in  God  without  understanding  him. 

•♦Professor  Genung,  op.  cit.,  p.    185.  ■  40:3-5- 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    295 

He  has  not  yet  come  to  a  certainty  of  Absolute 
Goodness,  and  certainly  he  must  have.  And  so 
God  speaks  again,96  to  show  Job  that,  even 
though  he  should  perfectly  reveal  himself,  it 
would  be  impossible  for  Job  to  comprehend  him. 
The  argument  is  of  the  same  character  as  in  the 
first  remonstrance  of  God;  it  is  an  appeal  from 
the  mystery  of  his  government  of  the  physical 
universe  to  the  impossibility  that  man  should  un- 
derstand his  moral  rule,  but  now  there  is  some- 
thing more.  Why  should  Job  separate  his  cause 
from  God's  ?  The  interests  of  God  are  the  inter- 
ests of  man  in  a  far  truer  sense  than  his  own 
private  interest  can  be.  At  last  Job  sees  the 
truth:  that  alliance  between  God  and  his  own 
soul,  which  he  had  dimly  perceived  when  he  ex- 
pressed his  conviction  that  he  should  eventually 
see  God,  has  become  a  reality ;  nay  more,  the  alli- 
ance is  not  only  between  God  and  man,  but  be- 
tween God  and  the  universe.  Though  he  may 
not  understand  God  fully,  he  can  perceive  that 
absolute  goodness  must  go  with  absolute  power 
—  else  the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crash  of 
worlds  would  come  at  once.  And  so  he  answers 
God  in  humility  which  is  no  longer  despairing : 

I  know  that  thou  canst  do  all  things, 
And  that  nothing  is  too  hard  for  thee. 

09  40 :  6  ff. 


296        HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

(Thou  saidst) 

"Who  is  he  that  darkeneth  counsel  without  knowledge?" 

Yea,  I  have  spoken  of  that  which  I  understood  not, 

Of  things  too  wonderful  for  me  which  I  knew  not, 
(When  I  said) 
"  Hear  me  and  I  will  speak 

I  will  ask  of  thee  and  hear  thou  me !  " 

I  had  heard  of  thee  with  the  hearing  of  the  ear: 

But  now  mine  eye  seeth  thee ; 

Wherefore  I  retract,  and  repent 

In  dust  and  ashes.87 

Yes,  in  his  ignorance  of  God  he  had  been  be- 
wildered ;  but  he  has  found  certainty  at  last :  for 
God  is  no  more  a  mere  object  of  speculative  faith, 
of  traditional  belief;  he  has  become  to  Job  a  re- 
ality, and  that  bond  of  union  between  them  which 
he  had  dimly  felt  has  come  to  be  the  most  real 
thing  in  all  his  experience;  a  bond  which  the 
strain  of  trial,  of  sorrow,  of  pain,  only  draws 
the  closer  and  makes  more  real.  Through  all 
the  bufferings  of  the  fierce  storm  of  his  afflic- 
tions he  had  clung  to  the  God  whom  he  had  dimly 
apprehended;  and  now  the  ineffable  vision  is 
vouchsafed  him.  And  the  vision  of  God  brings 
with  it  a  vision  of  himself.  Till  now  he  had 
known  neither  God  nor  himself;  now  he  knows 
both.  And  without  abating  one  jot  of  that  claim 
to  integrity  which  he  had  so  passionately  main- 
tained, he  recognizes  that  only  by  an  earthly 
standard  can  human  righteousness  be  measured. 

»7  42: 2-6. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY    297 

For  merit  lives    from  man   to   man, 
But  not  from  man,  O  God,  to  thee. 

So  closes  the  fifth  act  of  this  drama  of  divine 
Wisdom.  The  epilogue  makes  no  mention  of  the 
effect  produced  upon  the  Satan  and  the  heavenly 
divan  by  this  outcome.  But  we  have  already 
seen  that  the  sufferings  of  Job  were  not  for  his 
sake  alone,  but  for  the  sake  of  that  great  cloud  of 
witnesses,  those  sons  of  God,  who  with  intensest 
interest  had  been  watching  this  awful  drama  of 
pain.  They  knew  that  the  character  of  God  was 
bound  up  in  the  outcome  of  his  struggle  in  a  sense 
of  which  Job  did  not  dream.98  In  Job's  trial  — 
and  we  may  believe  in  all  those  trials  of  ours  in 
which  we  come  off  conquerors  —  the  angels  came 
to  a  new  revelation  of  the  Absolute  Good. 

IX 
The  double  earthly  gain  which  now  was  Job's 
has  been  called  a  material,  not  a  spiritual,  re- 
ward of  all  his  struggles,  but  this  is  a  mistake. 
God  blessed  Job,  we  are  told,  but  we  are  not  told 
that  he  recompensed  him  for  his  sufferings.  The 
material  prosperity  which  he  gave  him  was  sim- 

M  "  There  are  cases  where  God  inflicts  suffering  upon  man,  not 
because  of  sins  which  he  has  to  expiate,  nor  even  in  order  to  amel- 
iorate his  moral  character  and  prevent  faults  which  he  might  com- 
mit, but  in  view  of  himself  and  his  own  honor.  It  is  given  to  man 
to  play  a  noble  part  in  the  universe,  that  of  avenging  the  outraged 
honor  of  his  Creator,  and  making  his  glory  shine  out  in  higher 
spheres  than  that  of  humanity." —  Godet,  Etudes  bibliques,  Vol.  I, 
p.  271. 


298         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

ply  a  token  of  the  inestimable  value  which  he 
places  upon  such  love  and  trust  as  that  of  Job. 
That  the  material  good  was  not  intended  simply 
to  make  up  to  him  for  what  he  had  lost  must  be 
evident  to  all  who  have  lost  children.  Such  as 
may  be  later  born  are,  indeed,  as  balm  to  the 
bleeding  heart,  but  they  are  not  meant  to  take 
the  place  of  those  still  loved  though  lost. 

There  was  yet  more  in  the  blessing  which  God 
bestowed  upon  the  man  who  had  spoken  sincere- 
ly "  of  him.  God  set  upon  him  the  seal  of  com- 
plete victory  when  he  gave  him  the  opportunity 
to  perform  an  act  of  sublime  generosity  toward 
his  three  friends  by  offering  a  burnt-offering  for 
thern. 

The  meaning  of  this  marvelous  book,  we  now 
see,  is  that  it  is  possible  for  men  to  know  that 
there  is  an  absolute  standard  of  right,  and  that 
that  standard  is  God ;  that  he,  being  All  power 
and  All  might,  so  in  the  nature  of  things  is  All 
Good.  Even  when  clouds  and  darkness  are  round 
about  him,  even  though  in  man's  hour  of  urgent 
need  God  appears  to  hide  himself  (and  it  is  the 
bitter  drop  in  many  a  cup  of  anguish  that  he  often 
does  hide  himself  from  the  hearts  that  he  afflicts), 
even  then,  in  the  darkness  and  the  agony,  without 
one  ray  of  the  joy  that  shines  from  his  presence 
—  even  then,  though  one  may  not  even  cling  to 

"Job  42:  8. 


SEARCH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  CERTAINTY     299 

him,  so  empty  is  the  world  of  his  presence,  it  is 
possible  to  feel  sure  that  he  is  and  that  he  is  good. 
And  in  that  awful  hour  the  appeal  that  he  made 
to  Job  is  also  his  appeal  to  everyone.  When  all 
else  is  taken  from  us,  we  cannot  but  know  that 
God  reigns.  And  through  that  knowledge,  soon- 
er or  later,  but  surely,  most  surely,  we  shall  find 
our  way  back  to  the  certainty:  God  reigns  in 
righteousness  and  love. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA 


Since  the  earliest  dawn  of  civilization  every 
thoughtful  people  has  had  its  dreams  of  the  per- 
fect state.  In  the  infancy  of  the  race  men  looked 
back  to  the  Golden  Age  as  something  far  behind 
them ;  but  no  sooner  did  men  begin  to  think  than 
they  began  to  hope,  and  to  look  forward  to  a  fu- 
ture which  should  be  better  than  anything  that 
ever  yet  had  been.  Sir  Thomas  More's  Utopia 
and  Plato's  Republic  were  by  no  means  the  only 
embodiments  of  these  fair  dreams.  The  minds  of 
men  have  always  been  busy  with  plans  of  an  ideal 
state.  Vergil  in  his  fourth  Eclogue  gives  a  de- 
lightful picture  of  the  last  world-age,  as  a  blissful 
kingdom  of  peace.  The  Stoics  imagined  a  future 
community  of  humanity,  all  nations  being  united 
in  one  flock,  ruled  by  the  law  of  reason.  Brah- 
mins and  Buddhists,  with  a  truer  apprehension 
of  the  case,  wrestled  hard  with  the  problem  of 
redemption;  but  found  in  the  end  no  brighter 
hope  for  man  than  Nirvana.  The  Parsee,  whose 
view  of  life  was  nobler,  saw  in  it  a  ceaseless  con- 
300 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  301 

flict  between  good  and  evil ;  yet  no  more  dared 
look  for  the  ultimate  victory  of  the  good  than  he 
would  admit  the  possible  triumph  of  the  evil,  and 
could  only  hold  his  hope  in  suspense.  All  these 
dreams  of  the  future,  however,  were  a  matter  of 
pure  speculation.  There  were  few  or  none  to 
follow  Plato  and  Sir  Thomas  More  into  the  re- 
gion of  the  concrete  until  our  own  time,  when  a 
horde  of  modern  theorists,  set  thinking  by  Mr. 
Bellamy,  have  ventured  on  the  same  road. 

Our  studies  have  brought  to  light  the  impres- 
sive fact  that  the  Hebrew  people  appear  to  have 
had  an  intuitive  perception  of  certain  great  ideas, 
which,  though  they  underlie  all  thought,  usually 
come  to  human  consciousness  only  as  the  result 
of  long  and  thorough  culture. 

We  have  seen  that  from  an  early  day  Israel 
had  a  consciousness  of  the  great  cosmic  idea, 
unity,  and  of  its  true  basis  in  God.  We  have 
seen  how  the  idea  of  law  took  possession  of  Ko- 
heleth ;  we  now  find  two  other  universal  ideas 
emerging  from  the  prophetic  teachings :  that  of 
progress  —  or,  in  present-day  language,  develop- 
ment—  in  the  growth  of  ideas;  and  the  convic- 
tion that  there  is  a  meaning  in  human  experience; 
that  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet;  that  all 
events  are  significant.  This  idea  of  the  meaning- 
fulness  of  human  experience  shines  out  from  the 
first  page  of  Genesis,  where  Adam  gives  names 


302         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

to  the  creatures.1  To  the  concrete-thinking  He- 
brew to  give  a  name  was  to  fix  the  character; 
and  the  naming  of  the  brute  creation  by  the  first 
man  proved  him  lord  over  this  creation,  "  a  being 
of  free  will  and  large  responsibility,"  the  repre- 
sentative of  God  on  earth. 

From  the  disaster  of  the  fall  a  higher  good  was 
wrought,  a  nobler  destiny  was  given  to  man :  he 
is  no  longer  to  rule  simply  over  the  lower  crea- 
tion, but  also  in  the  moral  realm  —  to  trample 
evil  under  his  feet.  The  deep  significance  of  the 
narrative  is  that  sin,  suffering,  death  are  not  in- 
herent factors  in  human  nature,  but  something  ex- 
ternal, over  which  man  is  to  be  finally  victorious. 
Here,  then,  in  the  protevangelium,2  is  potentially 
the  Hebrew  Utopia,  as  the  oak  tree  is  potentially 
in  the  acorn ;  and  it  is  perfectly  correct  to  say 
that  the  entire  function  of  prophecy  was  to  de- 
velop the  idea  herein  contained  —  the  ideal  of  a 
perfect  humanity  forever  triumphant  over  evil. 
This  development  was  of  course  progressive,  little 
by  little.  The  prophets  entered  gradually  into  the 
deep  significance  of  this  early  ideal,  making  it 
more  and  more  concrete,  more  and  more  definite, 
and  thus  more  and  more  a  power  in  the  national 
life. 

There  was  a  profound  moral  purpose  in  these 
visions  of  a  perfect  state;  they  were  intended  in 

1  Gen.  2:  19.  s  Gen.   3:  15. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  303 

a  measure  to  bring  about  their  own  fulfilment, 
not  in  spite  of  man's  free  will,  but  by  means  of  it, 
their  very  beauty  and  desirability  being  calculated 
to  win  that  response  and  accord  of  man  which 
would  gradually  work  out  among  the  people  the 
ideal  citizenship  whose  existence  makes  possible 
the  perfect  state.  It  is  no  doubt  for  this  reason 
that  the  dream  of  the  Hebrew  Utopia  grew  ever 
brighter  in  the  face  of  disappointment,  that  the 
failure  of  prediction  led,  not  to  skepticism,  but 
to  a  more  ardent  hope.  The  high  and  beautiful 
ideals  held  by  the  prophets  of  Israel  embodied 
precisely  the  same  ideal  as  the  promise  given  to 
Eve  —  the  ultimate  triumph  of  good  over  evil  in 
the  person  of  man;  and  it  was  only  by  degrees 
that  they  gave  up  the  expectation  that  the  victor 
over  evil  would  be  all  Israel,  and  looked  for  the 
man  who  should  trample  evil  under  his  feet. 

This  was  one  ground  of  the  striking  element  of 
Hebrew  progress ;  a  noble  unrest,  a  divine  dissat- 
isfaction with  their  best  ideals,  had  possession  of 
this  people,  a  consciousness  that  something  better 
must  be  in  store  for  them  than  even  their  noblest 
dreams.  There  is,  as  Matthew  Arnold  says,  pro- 
found significance  in  the  fact,  given  by  the  writer 
of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that  Abraham,  not 
contented  with  the  wide  pasturages  of  the  land  of 
promise,  still  looked  for  a  city  —  a  higher  type  of 


304  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

civilization ; 3  and  that  the  "  rest  "  which  Joshua 
conquered  in  Canaan  for  the  wanderers  of  the 
wilderness  only  made  them  more  deeply  yearn  for 
the  sabbath  rest  still  kept  back  for  the  people  of 
God.4  It  was  always  so  with  the  Hebrew  Utopia ; 
each  new  color  added  to  the  beautiful  picture  only 
made  them  seek  for  a  brighter  pigment,  a  more 
golden  glory  to  spread  upon  the  canvas;  the  no- 
bler the  type  of  manhood  achieved  by  them,  the 
more  they  longed  for  a  manhood  noble  beyond 
their  highest  dreams ;  and  thus  it  became  at  last 
possible  that  God,  having  through  long  centuries 
spoken  to  Israel  in  the  prophets,  could  in  the  end 
of  the  days  speak  to  them  in  a  Son.5 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  meaning  of  this,  we 
ought  to  begin  by  observing  that  the  word  "  mes- 
sianic," which  may  be  used  interchangeably  with 
"  Utopian  "  as  applied  to  the  hope  of  Israel,  has 
not  in  the  Bible  the  invariable  significance  which 
has  been  given  to  it  since  the  coming  of  our  Lord. 
No  doubt  the  Utopian  hopes  of  Israel  came  more 
and  more  to  cluster  around  a  person,  as  Israel 
came  more  and  more  to  realize  the  failure  of  the 
nation  to  attain  to  ideal  goodness;  and  unques- 
tionably the  actual  fulfilment  of  these  hopes  was 
in  him  whom  we  know  as  the  Christ.  But  the 
Greek  word  "  Christ "  and  the  Hebrew  word 
"  Messiah  "  have  no  more  restricted  meaning  than 

»Heb.    n:  10.  *4-  8,  9-  s  « :  '.   2- 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  305 

the  English  word  "  anointed,"  which  properly 
translates  them;  and  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  the 
term  "  Messiah "  is  applied  to  many  persons. 
David  says  that  Saul  is  Jehovah's  Messiah,0  giv- 
ing that  as  his  reason  why  he  refrained  from 
killing  him  in  the  cave,  and  when  he  penetrated 
to  his  tent.  Aaron  was  called  Jehovah's  Messiah, 
and  in  Leviticus  7  the  same  word  refers  to  any 
future  high-priest.  Even  Cyrus,  who  released  ex- 
iled Israel  from  captivity  and  sent  them  back  to 
their  land,  is  Jehovah's  Messiah.8  In  other 
words,  the  messianic  idea  was  a  development, 
like  the  other  ideals  of  a  perfect  state. 

We  see  this  development  most  clearly  in  tracing 
the  application  of  the  title  "  Servant  of  Jehovah," 
which  is  used  in  the  Old  Testament  more  fre- 
quently than  the  word  "  Messiah,"  and  with  the 
same  import.  It  becomes  very  evident,  as  we 
study  prophecy,  that  this  title  was  originally  ap- 
plied to  the  Jewish  state,  whose  members  in  a 
collective  capacity  were  expected  to  realize  ideal 
perfection,  and  thus  serve  Jehovah's  purpose  as 
ministers  of  salvation  to  others.  By  degrees  the 
ideal  grew  so  high  that  it  could  not  possibly  be 
applied  to  the  whole  community:  its  application 
became  limited  to  the  remnant,  the  truly  God- 
fearing and  obedient  few,  to  whom  Isaiah  looks 
as  the  only  hope  of  Israel  —  the  only  portion  of 

*i    Sam.    24:6.  'Lev.  4:3-  •  Isa.  45:1. 


306         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

the  community  in  which  God's  promises  can  be 
made  good.  It  is  the  remnant  who  are  called  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  in  some  chapters  of  Isaiah 
and  elsewhere.  At  last  the  ideal  had  become  so 
transcendentally  glorious  that  only  a  divine-hu- 
man Messiah  could  fulfil  it  and  make  it  a  reality. 

For  example,  when  Moses  foretells  the  advent 
of  the  prophet  whom  God  would  raise  up  like 
unto  himself,9  his  prophecy  is  no  doubt  capable  of 
being  explained  to  refer  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
but  the  entire  context  shows  what  our  knowledge 
of  the  small  degree  of  spiritual  development  of 
Israel  at  that  time  would  lead  us  to  expect,  that 
the  most  the  people  could  at  that  time  understand, 
or  anticipate,  was  that,  just  as  Moses  had  brought 
the  first  clear  revelation  of  the  divine  will  in  the 
form  of  law,  so  in  the  Golden  Age  one  would  be 
raised  up  who  would  be  the  mediator  of  a  still 
greater  divine  enlightenment,  a  more  complete 
revelation  of  the  will  of  God. 

Divine  enlightenment  was  from  first  to  last  the 
central  fact  of  the  Hebrew  Utopia.  Isaiah  gave 
the  watchword  of  the  perfect  state  when  he  cried  : 
"  O  ye  house  of  Israel,  come  ye,  and  let  us  walk 
in  the  light  of  Jehovah !  "  10  This,  as  Matthew 
Arnold  says,  sums  up  the  whole  ideal  in  one  word  : 
to  walk  in  the  light  of  Jehovah  is  to  have  the 
possibility  of  perfection. 

9  Deut.    18:  15.  10  Isa.  2:  5. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  307 

But  much  of  what  we  call  prophecy  has  no 
reference  to  the  Messiah  in  any  capacity.  It  is 
the  kingdom  of  God  which  is  in  question,  that  to 
which  the  name  "  the  Hebrew  Utopia  "  has  been 
given,  an  ideal  of  the  perfect  state  whose  supreme 
ruler  is  God. 

II 

This  kingdom  of  God  was  to  be,  not  in  heaven, 
but  on  earth.  The  children  of  Israel  understood 
the  seat  of  their  Utopia  to  be  Palestine.  The  land 
was  as  important  a  part  of  the  promise  to  Abra- 
ham as  the  people.  The  hope  of  possession  of 
the  Promised  Land  inspires  the  whole  patriarchal 
history,  and  is  the  center  of  the  Mosaic  dispensa- 
tion as  well  as  of  the  long  struggles  under  the 
judges  and  early  kings.  The  possession  of  the 
land  was  no  doubt  only  a  means  to  an  end.  The 
purpose  for  which  Abraham  and  his  descendants 
were  separated  from  other  nations  was  that  Israel 
might  be  a  blessing  to  the  world ;  but  the  posses- 
sion of  the  land  seemed  a  necessary  means  to  this 
end.  The  Utopian  ideal  was  of  "  the  holy  nation 
in  possession  of  the  Holy  Land,"  and  the  land 
was  an  essential  factor  in  the  ideal. 

It  was  for  this  reason  that  Israel,  being  un- 
faithful, lost  the  land;  the  very  meaning  of  their 
national  existence  required  this.  An  unfaithful 
people  in  the  land  of  promise  and  blessing  would 
be  an  outrage  to  the  moral  sense;  and  of  all  the 


308         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

words  addressed  to  the  exiled  people  none  are 
brighter,   more  inspiring,   than  those  which  de- 
scribe the  restoration  of  the  land  to  its  part  in 
the  purpose  of  blessing:11     "I  am  returned  to 
Zion.     I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem."     So 
that  Jerusalem  shall  be  called  "  a  city  of  fidelity," 
and  the  mountain  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  "  the  holy 
mountain."     The  summing  up  of  Joel's  glorious 
prophecy  is  that   "  Jehovah   dwells  in  Zion."  12 
The  name  of  Ezekiel's  new  Jerusalem  was  "  Here 
is  God."  13     It  is  very  significant  that  the  proph- 
ecy which   for   generations   was  believed   to   be 
the  earliest  written  book  of  prophecy  —  that  of 
Jonah  —  should  have  for  its  central  thought  the 
earliest  ideal  of  the  Hebrew  people,  the  promise 
to  Abraham  that  all  nations  of  the  earth  should 
be  blessed  in  his  seed.    The  book  of  Jonah  stands 
apart  from  all  literature  of  the  early  time;  yet  it 
is  in  the  line  of  God's  avowed  purpose,  showing 
that  he  has  as  complete  a  care  for  heathen  peoples 
as  for  his  own  chosen  nation.    The  closing  verse 
of  that   prophecy   is   the  final   sentiment  of   all 
prophecy :   "  Should  not  I  have  pity  on  Nineveh, 
that  great  city,  wherein  are  more  than  six  score 
thousand   persons   that   cannot   discern   between 

"Zech.  8:  3. 
"Joel  3:21- 
"Ezek.  48:35,  the  last  words  of  the  book. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  309 

their  right   hand  and   their  left  hand:  and  also 
much  cattle?"  14 

III 
This,  then,  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  Hebrew 
Utopia  —  Israel  a  blessing  to  the  world  because 
Israel  knows  God.  Amos,  the  prophet  who  first 
wrote  of  God's  mercy,  bases  his  dreams  of  the 
Utopia  quite  as  much  upon  his  justice  —  that 
"  judgment  "  so  dear  to  the  devout  Hebrew  soul. 
It  was  religiously  a  very  bad  time  when  Amos 
prophesied  —  the  days  of  the  second  Jeroboam, 
when,  as  we  learned  not  long  ago,  great  external 
prosperity  had  corrupted  the  nation.  That  moral 
necessity  of  exile  from  the  land,  already  touched 
upon,  had  become  evident  to  the  prophet's  mind 
as  absolutely  essential  to  bringing  about  the  right 
conditions  for  that  Utopia,  the  hope  of  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  grew  ever  brighter  in  disappoint- 
ment. Israel  must  be  sifted  among  the  nations; 
not  for  loss,  but  salvation. 

For  lo,  I  am  going  to  give  charge 

And  sift  the  house  of  Israel  among  all  nations 

As  grain  is  sifted  in  a  sieve; 

And  not  a  grain  falls  to  the  ground.15 

The  early  chapters  of  the  prophecy  of  Amos 
show  the  wide  dominion  of  God  by  picturing  the 

14  Jon.    4:  II. 

15  Am.  9:9.  I  have  borrowed  in  this  study  Professor  Eriggs's 
translations  in  Messianic  Prophecy  and  those  of  the  Rev.  Buchanan 
Blake  in  How  to  Read  the  Prophets. 


310         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

neighboring  nations  as  subject  to  that  "  judg- 
ment "  of  God  which  was  to  Israel  such  a  ground 
of  hope.  Then  follow  a  series  of  warnings  and 
a  series  of  visions,  and  finally  (after  the  promise 
of  sifting)  comes  a  glorious  picture  of  the  Golden 
Age: 

"  In  that  day  I  will  raise  up  the  fallen  hut  of  David, 
And  wall  up  its  breaches,  and  raise  up  its  ruins, 
And  build  it  as  in  days  of  old; 
In   order  that  they  may  seek  Jehovah, 
The  remnant  of  Edom,   and  all  nations 
Upon  whom  my  name  is  called ;  " 
Is  the  utterance  of  Jehovah,  doer  of  this. 

"  Lo,  days  are  coming,"  is  the  utterance  of  Jehovah, 
"When  the  ploughman  will  overtake  the  reaper, 

And  the  treader  of  grapes,  the  sower  of  seed ; 

And  the  mountains  will  drip  with  new  wine   [fertility], 

And  all  the  hills  will  melt. 

"  And  I  will  restore  the  prosperity  of  my  people  Israel, 
And  they  will  build  waste  cities,  and  inhabit  them; 
And  plant  vineyards,  and  drink  their  wine; 
And  make  gardens,  and  eat  their   fruit; 
And  I  will  plant  them  upon  their  land, 
And  they  shall  not  again  be  thrust  out  from  their  land 
Which  I  have  given  them ; " 
Jehovah  thy  God  doth  say.16 

Here  the  Promised  Land  is  the  abiding  habita- 
tion of  God's  people;  the  heathen  will  seek  the 
Lord  there;  and  nature  will  respond  to  the  joy 
of  man,  the  mountains  dropping  sweet  wine  and 
the  hills  melting  with  gladness. 

18  Am.  9:  11—15;  Briggs. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  311 

We  can  imagine  what  would  be  the  central 
element  in  Hosea's  Utopian  dream  —  the  return 
of  wayward  Israel  to  obedience  and  love.  All 
creation  will  have  its  part  in  the  joy  of  such  a 
reformation.17  Till  that  time  it  will  be  travailing 
and  groaning  in  pain ;  but  then  it  will  find  its  re- 
demption in  the  redemption  of  the  people  of  God. 
Even  to  this  day  this  glorious  thought  —  the  re- 
demption of  nature — has  found  no  place  in  the 
most  perfect  Utopias  outside  of  the  Bible,  and  we 
have  not  yet  begun  to  appreciate  its  profound 
significance. 

The  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  (all  created 
things)  waiteth  for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God. 
For  the  creature  was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not  of  its 
own  will,  but  by  reason  of  him  who  subjected  it,  in  hope 
that  the  creation  itself  shall  also  be  delivered  from  the 
bondage  of  corruption  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the 
children  of  God.18 

What  did  Paul  mean  in  this  passage?  What 
did  the  prophets  mean  when  they  described  in 
such  glowing  colors  this  truce  of  nature? 

And  the  wolf  will  dwell  with  the  lamb, 

And  the  leopard  lie  down  with  the  kid, 

And  the  calf  and  young  lion  and   fading  together, 

And  a  little  child  be  leader  over  them. 

And  the  cow  and  bear  shall  graze : 

Together  will  their  young  lie  down, 

And  the  lion  like  the  ox  will  eat  straw : 

And  a  suckling  shall  play  over  the  hole  of  the  asp, 

17  Hos.,  chap.   14.  18  Rom.   S:  19-21. 


312         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

And  over  the  light  hole  of  the  great  viper 
The  weaned  child  will  have  stretched  out  his  hand. 
And  they  will  not  harm  or  destroy  in  all  my  holy  moun- 
tain. 
For  the  earth  will  have  been  filled  with  knowing  Jehovah, 
As  the  waters  are  covering  the  sea.19 

The  visions  of  Isaiah  with  regard  to  the  Gold- 
en Age  are  especially  magnificent.  In  general, 
Isaiah,  who  was  just  such  a  statesman  and  patriot 
as  Elisha,  though  under  far  different  circum- 
stances, finds  the  Golden  Age  in  the  reign  of  an 
anointed  king  and  the  willing  subjection  of  the 
people  of  God.  Labor  is  hallowed ;  there  shall 
be  no  weak  hands ;  there  shall  be  no  feeble  knees ; 
nor  shall  there  be  deaf  ears  or  blurred  eyes; 
divine  things  will  be  immediately  apprehended.20 
Not  that  God  will  be  nearer  to  his  people  than  he 
always  has  been,  but  that,  like  Elisha's  servant,21 
men's  eyes  will  be  opened,  and  they  shall  see  that 
which  though  invisible  is  always  near.  In  that 
rhapsody  of  judgment  and  salvation,  the  section 
of  Isaiah's  prophecy  which  includes  chaps.  24-27, 
the  important  part  played  by  the  land  is  brought 
out. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  Jehovah 
shall  beat  out  his  corn,  from  the  flood  of  the  river 
(Euphrates)  unto  the  brook  of  Egypt,  and  ye  shall  be 
garnered,  one  by  one,  O  ye  children  of  Israel. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  a  great 
trumpet  shall  be  blown ;  and  they  shall  come  which  were 

18  Isa.   11:6-9.  20  Isa.,   chap.   35.  21  2  Kings  6:17. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  313 

ready  to  perish  in  the  land  of  Assyria,  and  they  that 
were  outcasts  shall  worship  Jehovah  in  the  holy  moun- 
tain of  Jerusalem.-2 

No  doubt,  in  the  prophet's  view,  the  Utopia 
would  immediately  begin  when  the  exile  of  Israel 
was  ended.  The  times  and  seasons  were  not 
known  to  God's  spokesman  at  that  time  any  more 
than  they  were  to  the  apostles  or  even  to  the  Son 
of  God  himself.     Jeremiah  had  the  same  idea: 

Again   will  they  say  this  thing  in  the  land  of  Judah  and 

in  its  cities,  when  I  restore  their  prosperity: 
"  May    Jehovah    bless    thee,    habitation    of    righteousness, 

mountain  of  holiness, 
And   let  Judah   and   all   his   cities   dwell    together   therein, 

the    husbandmen    and    those    who    tent    about    with 

their  flocks."  23 

Isaiah  in  the  second  chapter  (which  is  the  true 
beginning  of  his  prophecy,  chap.  1  being  an  in- 
troduction) takes  for  his  text  an  ancient  oracle 
telling  of  the  part  the  heathen  will  have  in  the 
future  Utopia: 

But  in  the  latter  day  it  shall  come  to  pass  that 

The  mountain  of  Jehovah's  house  shall  be  established,  at 

the  head   of  mountains. 
It  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills :  yea,  peoples  shall  flow 

unto  it. 
And    many   nations   shall   come,    and    say,   "  Come,    let    us 

go  up 
To  the  mountain  of  Jehovah,  and  to  the  house  of  the  God 

of  Jacob, 

22  Isa.  27:12.   13-  ;3  Jer.31:  23,    24. 


314         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

For  he  will  teach  us  his  ways   and  we  will   walk  in  his 

paths." 
For    teaching    shall    go    forth    from    Zion  —  the    word    of 

Jehovah   from  Jerusalem. 

This  picture  is  very  striking  by  reason  of  its 
bold  figures.  The  temple  mount  is  to  be  miracu- 
lously drawn  upward  till  it  is  exalted  over  the 
tops  of  all  the  mountains,  visible  to  the  whole 
world;  and  the  beautiful  picture  is  given  of  the 
people  of  all  nations  streaming  upward  to  it  from 
every  direction,  like  waters  reversing  their  usual 
course  by  an  irresistible  attraction.  We  shall  find 
in  Ezekiel  a  companion  figure  of  blessings  flowing 
down  from  Jerusalem  upon  the  peoples.  Then 
will  be  realized  the  promise  to  Abraham,  all  na- 
tions blessed  in  his  seed. 

Isaiah,  as  a  study  of  his  book  makes  clear,  was 
the  first  to  be  so  impressed  by  this  ancient  oracle, 
which  he  and  also  Micah  took  for  the  text  of  their 
prophecies,  as  actually  to  apply  it  to  all  the  peo- 
ples of  the  world.  Amos  had  seen  that  the  neigh- 
boring people  were  concerned  with  Israel  in  God's 
judgments ;  but  Isaiah  is  the  first  writer  in  any 
nation  who  conceived  of  the  history  of  the  world 
as  a  whole.  But  after  Isaiah  this  thought 
was  dear  to  the  prophets  of  Israel;  Jeremiah24 
tells  how  the  nations  "  shall  come  and  sing 
in  the  light  of  Zion  and  flow  unto  the  goodness 

24  31 :  II,    12. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  315 

of  Jehovah.  And  their  soul  shall  become  as  a 
watered  garden,  and  they  shall  not  sorrow  any 
more." 

IV 
Another  feature  of  the  Hebrew  Utopia  is  peace. 
Isaiah  leads  the  prophetic  chorus  in  declaring  that 
war  shall  be  no  more: 

And  he  will  judge  [arbitrate]   between  the  nations, 

And  admonish  many  peoples; 

And  they  shall  beat  their   swords  into  ploughshares, 

And  their  spears  into  pruning  hooks ; 

Nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  ag-ainst  nation, 

And  they  shall  not  learn  war  any  more.25 

We  can  grasp  the  large  significance  of  Isaiah's 
prophecy  of  peace  (based,  It  will  be  noticed,  upon 
arbitration,  the  precise  meaning  of  "  judge  be- 
tween ")  as  a  witness  to  the  development  of  the 
Utopian  ideal,  only  when  we  realize  that  in  the 
early  days  war  was  the  business  of  nations,  and 
that  it  even  yet  appears  to  be  their  chief  busi- 
ness. Perhaps  the  very  first  step  toward  the 
realization  of  Isaiah's  glorious  vision  of  universal 
peace  was  taken  when  the  international  arbitra- 
tion convention  was  founded  at  The  Hague.  For 
the  Anointed  King  for  whose  birth  Isaiah  was 
eagerly  looking  would  be  not  only  Wonderful- 
Counselor,  Hero-God,  Father-Everlasting,  but 
Prince  of  Peace.    At  his  coming  "  all  the  armies 

»Isa.  2:4  ft. 


316         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

of  the  anned  men  in  the  tumult  and  the  garments 
rolled  in  blood  [all  that  speaks  of  war]  shall  be 
even  for  fire  and  for  fuel  of  fire  "  (no  more  need- 
ed).20 Under  the  rule  of  such  a  prince  shall  this 
song  be  sung  in  the  land  of  Judah : 

Ours  is  a  strong  city!  For  walls  and  outworks  is  salva- 
tion appointed. 

Open  ye  the  gates  [defenses  no  longer  needed].  Let  a 
righteous  nation  that  keepeth  faith  enter  in : 

A  purpose  firmly  fixed  thou  dost  keep  —  Peace; 

Perfect  peace  to  those  whose  trust  is  in  thee.27 

Then  they  can  say  to  the  nations : 

Look  upon  Zion  [Jerusalem]  —  the  city  of  our  feasts ! 

Thine  eyes  shall  see 
A  peaceful  habitation  —  an  abiding  tabernacle  [not  needing 

to  be  removed  for  fear  of  the  enemy]  ; 
Her  stakes  shall  never  be  removed,  nor  her  cords  broken. 
Jehovah   shall  there  be  our  glory.     In  the  place  of  broad 

rivers  and  streams 
No  oared  [war]  galley  shall  go  —  no  gallant  ship  [of  war] 

shall  pass; 
Jehovah  is  our  judge:   Jehovah  is  our  law-giver;  28 
Jehovah  is  our  king.    He  will  save  us.29 

It  is  no  doubt  in  the  enthusiasm  of  this  new 
idea  of  peace  that  the  forty-sixth  psalm  was  writ- 
ten: 

9:5,  0. 

™  26:    1-3. 
28  33:   20—22. 

28  The  force  of  this  exultation  can  best  be  appreciated  when 
it  is  remembered  that  Chaldea  —  that  "  place  of  broad  rivers  and 
streams  " —  had   about   this   period   instituted   her  navy. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  317 

There  is  a  river  —  its  streams  make  glad  the  city  of  God, 
The  holy  place  of  the  tabernacles  of  the  Most  High. 
God  is  in  her  midst,  she  shall  not  be  moved. 
God   hath  helped  her  even  in  the  morning  dawn. 
The  nations  raged.     The  kingdoms  were  moved. 
He  uttereth  his  voice,  the  earth  melted  ! 
Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  with  us :   the  God  of  Jacob  our  refuge 
sure. 

Come,  behold  the  works  of  Jehovah  —  what  desolation  in 

the  earth  he  makes. 
He  maketh  wars  to  cease  unto  the  end  of  the  earth. 
He  breaketh  the  bow  :  he  cutteth  the  spear  in  sunder. 
He  burneth  the  chariots  in  fire. 
"Be  still   (he  says)  and  know  that  I  am  God,  high  among 

the  nations,  high  in  the  earth." 
Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  with  us:  the  God  of  Jacob  our  refuge 

sure. 

Micah,  Isaiah's  contemporary,  dwells  with  de- 
light on  this  new  dream  of  peace.30  The  ruler 
who  is  to  come 

....  shall  stand  and  feed  in  the  strength  of  Jehovah 

In  the  majesty  of  the  name  of  Jehovah  his  God; 

And   they  shall  abide :   for  now   shall   he  be  great  to   the 

ends   of  the   earth, 
Yea,  this  one  shall  be  peace. 

Micah  lived  in  a  very  wicked  time,  but  he  saw 
a  great  truth.  Part  of  his  fourth  chapter,  which 
is  sung  in  the  Sistine  Chapel  every  Good  Friday 
to  music  by  Palestrina,  is  a  word  of  forgiveness, 
and  all  through  his  prophecy  it  is  the  thought  of 
forgiveness  which  lends  cogency  to  his  vigorous 

8Q  Mic.    5:  4,   5a. 


318         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

efforts  for  a  present  reformation  as  well  as  to  his 
dream  of  the  future  perfect  state : 

In  that  day,  saith  Jehovah,  I  will  assemble  her  that 
halteth,  and  I  will  gather  her  that  is  driven  out,  and 
her  that  I  have  afflicted.  Yea,  I  will  make  her  that 
halteth  a  remnant,  and  her  that  was  cast  off  a  strong 
nation,  and  the  Lord  himself  shall  reign  over  them  in 
Mount  Zion 31  from  henceforth,  even  forever.  And  thou, 
O  tower  of  the  flock,  thou  stronghold  of  the  daughter 
of  Zion,  unto  thee  shall  the  former  kingdom  come  back: 
the  kingdom  shall  come  back  to  the  daughter  of  Jeru- 
salem.32 

Micah  also  sees  peace  as  a  feature  of  the  per- 
fect state : 

Yea,  he  shall  judge  [arbitrate]   among  many  peoples,  and 

rebuke  strong  nations  afar  off; 
And  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares,  their 

spears  into  pruning  hooks. 
Nation  shall  not  lift  up   sword   against  nation :    war  they 

learn  no  more. 
But  they  shall  sit  every  man  under  his  vine  and   his  fig 

tree; 
None  shall   make  them  afraid. 
The  mouth  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts  hath  spoken.33 

Nahum  adds  nothing  to  the  picture  of  the  per- 
fect state,  his  prophecy  being  entirely  against 
Nineveh,  with  a  few  words  of  encouragement  to 
Judah.  "  The  Lord  is  good.  He's  a  stronghold 
in  the  day  of  trouble.    Yea,  he  knoweth  them  that 

11  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  "  Zion  "  in  the  prophetic 
writings  is  seldom  if  ever  a  metaphor  for  the  church;  it  means 
simply   "  Jerusalem,"   where   God  was  expected   personally  to   reign. 

»24:6-8. 

83  Mic.   4:3,  4. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  319 

trust  in  him."  9i  But  Zephaniah,  who  lived  in 
that  dark  period  just  before  Josiah's  reformation, 
and  whose  words  are  chiefly  of  warning,  yet  looks 
forward  35  to  the  time  when  the  city  shall  be  full 
of  holy  joy  because  its  sins  are  canceled  and  "  the 
king  of  Israel,  even  Jehovah,  is  in  its  midst," 
making-  Israel  "  a  name  and  a  praise  among  all 
peoples  of  the  earth." 

During  this  period  Habbakuk  prophesied  and 
was  troubled,  as  we  remember,  because  God's 
people  were  spoiled  by  the  wicked  Assyrians.  His 
prophecy  is  among  the  most  sublime  poetry  of 
the  Old  Testament,  but  it  adds  nothing  definite 
to  the  hope  of  a  perfect  state. 

Jeremiah  prophesied  in  a  dreadful  time  —  the 
period  leading  up  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem;  and 
most  of  his  utterances  are  of  warning  and  sorrow, 
tears  for  the  slain  of  the  daughter  of  his  people. 
Yet  some  of  the  most  beautiful  ideals  of  the  per- 
fect state  are  his.  He  sees  Israel  as  a  docile  flock, 
tended  by  the  good  shepherd : 

He  that  gathered   Israel   will  garner  him.    He  will   keep 
him 
As  a  shepherd  doth  his  flock. 
And  they  shall  come  and  sing  upon  Mount  Zion : 
They  shall   flow   to  the   good   things   of  Jehovah,  to   the 

wheat  and  wine, 
To  the  oil,  and  to  the  young  of  the  flock  and  the  herd. 

"Nah.    1:  7.  8!Zeph.  3:  15,  20. 


320         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Their    soul    shall    be    as    a    watered    garden.     They    shall 

languish   no   more. 
Then   shall   the  virgins   rejoice   in   the   dance,   young  men 

and  old  together. 
For  I   turn  their   mourning   into  joy,   and   comfort  them, 
I  will  make  them  rejoice  after  their  sorrow. 
Yea,   my   people   shall    be    satisfied   with   my   good   things, 

saith  Jehovah.88 

The  new  covenant  is  a  guarantee  that  this  is 
only  the  beginning  of  a  period  of  endless  obe- 
dience and  joy : 

And   they   shall  be  to   me  a  people,  and   I   will   be   their 

God. 
Yea,   I   will  give  them  one  heart,  and  one  way  evermore 

to  fear  me, 
That  it  may  be  well  with  them,  and  their  children  after 

them. 
I  will  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  them ; 
I  will  not  turn  away  from  them,  that  they  may  not  depart 

from  me. 
I  will  rejoice  over  them  to  do  good.     Yea,  I  will  in  truth 

plant  them 
In  this  land,  with  my  whole  heart,  and  my  whole  soul.37 

Jerusalem  shall  be  a  habitation  of  justice,  a 
mount  of  holiness,  its  name  shall  be  "  Jehovah  is 
our  Righteousness,"  38  and  every  weary  soul  and 
every  fainting  soul  shall  be  satisfied.39 

Zechariah,  too,  sees  the  shepherd  character  of 
the  Messiah.  "  He  feeds  the  flock  exposed  to 
slaughter,  even  you,  O  poor  ones  of  the  flock;  "  40 

MTer.   31:10-14.  S823:6.  40  Zech.   11:7. 

87  32:  38-41.  30  31:  23.  25- 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  321 

and  guides  them  with  his  two  staves,  Delight,  or 
graciousness,  and  Union  (bands)  thus  typifying 
the  union  of  Israel  and  Judah  —  now  far  apart. 
Zechariah  dwells  with  delight  on  the  peaceful 
character  of  the  Messianic  King: 

Rejoice  greatly,  O  daughter  of  Zibn.     Shout,  O  daughter 

of  Jerusalem. 
Behold,  thy  king  comcth  to  thee,  just  and  victorious. 
Lowly,   even   riding   upon   an  ass  —  upon   a  colt,   an   ass's 

foal. 
I  am  cutting  off  the  chariot  [of  war]   from  Ephraim,  the 

horse   [used  only  in  war]   from  Jerusalem. 
The  battle  shall  be  broken.     He  shall  speak  peace  to  the 

nations. 
His  dominion — 'tis  from  sea  to  sea,  from  the  river  to  the 

ends  of  the  earth.41 

This  prophet  gives  a  vigorous  description  of  the 
blessedness  of  the  people  under  the  Shepherd's 
rule: 

Yea,   Jehovah  their   God   shall   save  them,   in  that  day  — 

the  flock  of  his  pasture. 
For  they  shall   be  as  jewels   of  a  crown  —  as  a  standard 

glittering  over  the  land. 
Oh,  how  great  shall  be  their  happiness!     How  great  their 

splendor ! 
Corn  shall   make  their  young  men  glad;  new  wine  their 

maids.42 

But  the  crowning  joy  of  the  Hebrew  Utopia  is 
the  actual  presence  of  God;  Jeremiah  had  seen 
that  the  name  of  Jerusalem  would  be  "  Jehovah 

«Zech.   9:9,    10.  "9:16,    17. 


322         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

is  our  Righteousness  " —  Ezekiel  saw  that  it  was 
"Jehovah  is  here,"  ever-present.     So  Zechariah: 

Thus  saith  Jehovah :  "  I  have  returned  to  Zion,  I  will 
dwell  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem, 

And  Jerusalem  shall  be  called  the  city  of  fidelity;  and 
the  mountain  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth  the  holy  moun- 
tain." 

Thus  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth : 

"  Again  old  men  and  old  women  will  dwell  in  the  streets 

of  Jerusalem, 
Each  with  his  staff  in  his  hand  because  of  great  age ; 
And   the  streets  of  the   city  will  be  filled  with  boys  and 

girls  playing  in  the  streets  thereof." 

Thus  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth : 

"  Lo,  I  am  about  to  save  my  people  from  the  land  of  the 
sunrise  and  from  the  land  of  the  sunset, 

And  bring  them,  and  they  shall  dwell  in  the  midst  of 
Jerusalem,  and  become  my  people, 

And  I  will  become  their  God  in  faithfulness  and  in  right- 
eousness." 43 

Then  shall  be  fulfilled  the  promise  of  blessing 
to  the  world : 

Thus  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth : 

"  Yet   it    will    be    that    peoples    and    inhabitants   of    great 

cities    will    come. 
And    the    inhabitants    of   the   one    will    go   unto   another, 

saying, 
'  Let  us  go  on  to  court  the  face  of  Jehovah, 
And  seek  the  face  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth.'    '  Let  me  go  also.' 
And  many  peoples  and  strong  nations  will  come 
To  seek  Jehovah  Sabaoth  in  Jerusalem,  and  to  court  the 

face  of  Jehovah." 

Thus  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth : 

"  In    those    days,    when    ten    men    of   all   tongues   of   the 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  323 

nations  shall  lay  hold,  they  will  lay  hold  of  a  Jewish 
man,  saying, 
'  Let    us   go   with   you,    for  we   have   heard    that   God    is 
with  you.'  "  44 

But  Ezekiel,  in  his  visions  by  the  river  Chebar, 
saw  the  glorious  future  as  none  of  his  predeces- 
sors had  done.  In  his  far  exile  from  the  sacred 
home  of  his  fathers,  he  delighted  himself  with 
constructing  a  plan  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  down 
to  its  minutest  details.  The  new  name  of  the  city, 
as  we  have  seen,  should  be  "  Here  is  God."  45 
Like  Zephaniah  he  saw  the  character  of  the  rule 
to  be  that  of  a  shepherd,  but  the  shepherd  is  not 
Jehovah  himself,  but  his  Anointed,  the  Messiah: 

And  I  will  set  up  one  Shepherd  over  them,  and  he  shall 

feed  them, 
My  servant  David,  he  shall  feed  them. 

I,  Jehovah,  have  spoken. 

I  will  make  with  them  a  covenant  of  peace ; 

I  will  cause  the  evil  beasts  to  cease  out  of  the  land ; 

And  they  shall   dwell  safely  in  the   wilderness,  and   sleep 

in  the  woods  [because  the  wild  beasts  will  be  tame]. 
Yea,  I   will  set  them  round  my  hill, 
And  I  will  cause  the  rain  to  come  down  in  its  season. 
There  shall  be  showers  causing  blessing: 
The  tree  of  the  field  shall  yield  its   fruit ;  the  earth  her 

increase. 
And  they  shall  be  safe  in  the  land,  and  know  that  I  am 

Jehovah.46 

44  8 :  20-23.  «  Ezek.  48:3s.  **  34 :  23-270. 


324  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Like  Isaiah,  we  see  that  Ezekiel  looked  for  a 
metamorphosis  of  the  natural  world,  whenever 
the  hearts  of  God's  people  should  be  in  harmony 
with  his  will.  Ezekiel  belonged  to  the  priesthood, 
and  his  Utopian  dream  was  not  that  of  a  kingdom, 
but  of  a  thoroughly  organized  ecclesiastical  state. 
We  remember  how  in  the  last  nine  chapters  of  his 
book  he  gives  a  detailed  account  of  his  idea  of  the 
perfect  restoration  of  God's  house,  and  of  the 
never-ceasing  service  that  should  go  on  therein, 
and  the  river  of  life  issuing  from  the  temple  to 
water  the  whole  world. 

Joel  sees  the  same  river  of  life  as  one  of  the 
blessed  features  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  "  A 
fountain  will  issue  from  the  house  of  Jehovah  and 
water  the  acacia  vale"47  in  the  land  of  Moab, 
crossing  the  Jordan  to  extend  its  life-giving  in- 
fluence to  the  nations.  This  is  the  river  the 
writer  of  Revelation  saw.  Like  Zephaniah  and 
Ezekiel,  Joel  saw  the  chief  blessedness  of  the  new 
Jerusalem  to  be  that  "  Jehovah  is  a  dweller  in 
Zion."  48 

But  Joel  makes  a  glorious  addition  to  the  fair 
Utopian  vision :  That  aspiration  breathed  by 
Moses,  with  no  hope  of  its  literal  fulfilment  — 
"  would  God  that  all  Jehovah's  people  were 
prophets ;  that  Jehovah  would  put  his  Spirit  upon 
them  " —  is  to  be  granted  in  the  perfect  state,  as 

47  Joel  3:  18c.  "3:  21b. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  325 

Joel  foresees  it.    Everyone  shall  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit : 

I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh, 

And  your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy; 

Your    old    men    shall    dream    dreams  —  your    young    men 

shall  see  visions ; 
Yea,  also  upon  the  men-servants  and  handmaids  in  those 

days  will  I  pour  out  my  spirit.49 

Obadiah  gives  the  highest  ideal  of  humanity : 
"  Upon  Mount  Zion  shall  be  a  remnant,  and  it 
shall  be  holiness;  "  50  and  reaches  the  final  goal  of 
prophecy  — "  Jehovah's  shall  be  the  kingdom." 
And  a  choir  of  psalmists  in  the  days  of  Israel's 
restoration  break  out  into  the  same  triumphant 
song.  In  a  group  of  psalms,  the  ninety-third  to 
the  one  hundredth,  this  is  the  central  thought : 

Jehovah    doth   reign,  he   is   clothed   with  majesty. 
Jehovah  is  magnificent.51 

And  again : 

Say  among  the  nations  that  Jehovah  doth  reign.52 

And  still  again: 

Jehovah  doth  reign,  let  the  earth  exult, 


and 


Let  the  many  coasts  be  glad. 

Jehovah  doth  reign,  let  the  peoples  tremble.53 

Know    that   Jehovah,   he    is    God, 
He   made    us,   and   we   are   his.54 


"2:28,  29.  «Ps.  93:1.  M  Pss.  97:  1;  99:  1. 

wOb.,  vss.    17a,   21b.         B3Ps.   96:10.         M  Ps.  100:3. 


326         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Thus  we  see  all  dreams  of  the  perfect  state 
gathering  around  and  culminating  in  the  thought 
of  the  literal,  personal  reign  of  God  over  a  re- 
newed and  purified  earth  —  this  world  of  ours  — 
inhabited  by  men  realizing  God's  first  ideal  —  a 
people  all  holiness,  endowed  with  his  Spirit,  final 
victors  over  evil.  The  ninety-first  psalm  gives  the 
glorious  picture  of  this  ideal. 

Nothing  can  be  fairer,  more  satisfying,  than 
this  ideal,  and  if  it  had  been  possible  for  mankind 
to  realize  it,  the  world  would  have  been  the  He- 
brew Utopia  ages  ago.  One  prophet  alone  —  per- 
haps two  —  saw  the  impossibility  that  this  glori- 
ous dream  should  become  reality  until  a  divine 
model  had  been  given  to  man,  one  who  did  per- 
fectly realize  the  ideal.  Malachi  perhaps  indi- 
cated this  in  his  promise 55  that  the  "  Sun  of 
Righteousness  should  arise  with  healing  in  his 
wings;"  and  the  last  chapters  of  Isaiah56  make 
the  whole  thing  clear  —  that  the  redemption  of 
Zion  can  only  be  through  one  suffering  and  per- 
fectly obedient  Servant  of  God.  A  study  of  this 
greatest  of  prophecies  makes  no  change  in  this 
view  of  the  Hebrew  Utopia;  but  it  does  give  a 
sure  ground  of  expectation  that  this  glorious  pic- 
ture, whose  outlines  we  have  now  seen,  will  one 
day  become  a  reality.  And  more  than  this,  the 
last  chapters  of  Isaiah  show  that  the  perfect  state 

wMal.  4:2.  M  Isa.,   chaps.   40-66. 


THE  HEBREW  UTOPIA  327 

will  not  be  the  final  consummation  of  all  things, 
but  the  true  beginning;  that  the  Utopia  dreamed 
of  by  Hebrew  prophets  will  be,  as  has  been  lately 
said,  "  not  earth's  closing  epoch,  but  earth's  glori- 
fied form,"  when  the  true  normal  state  of  things 
shall  come  to  exist  and  "  Eden  (that  blessed  place 
where  God  walks  and  talks  with  men)  will  be 
restored." 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY 


The  abiding  impression  made  by  a  study  of 
that  body  of  laws  and  institutions  which  we  call 
Mosaic  must  be  one  of  surprise.  At  whatever 
period  given,  whether  at  various  times  during  the 
forty  years'  wandering,  or  also  at  other  critical 
times  in  the  national  life,  it  was  given  to  a  people 
by  no  means  the  most  civilized,  thoughtful,  and 
highly  educated  of  their  time,  a  people  in  many 
respects  immature.  On  general  principles,  it 
might  be  expected  that  long  before  our  own  day 
it  would  be  antiquated  and  ready  to  vanish  away, 
like  the  Ten  Tables  of  Solon  and  the  Code  of 
Hammurabi.1  Most  of  us  perhaps  think  that  it 
has  vanished  away,  having  been  superseded  when 
our  Lord  came.  On  the  contrary,  a  careful  study 
of  the  Mosaic  legislation  shows  that  it  is  a  mar- 

1  The  Code  of  Hammurabi  was  discovered  and  published  long 
after  this  chapter  was  written.  I  have  thoroughly  revised  it,  how- 
ever, with  reference  to  that  code  (which  is  far  older  than  Abraham 
and  must  have  been  known  to  him),  not  only  because  its  influence 
upon  the  Mosaic  institutions  is  clearly  traceable,  but  also  because 
a  comparison  of  the  two  brings  into  striking  relief  the  marvelously 
high  ethical  standard  of  the  latter.  In  comparing  the  two  I  have 
used    Professor   R.    F.   Harper's  edition. 

328 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      329 

velously  universal  body  of  laws,  with  important 
elements  of  permanent  value  for  the  ordering  of 
human  relations.  In  certain  respects  it  appears 
perfectly  adapted  to,  and  designed  to  bring  about, 
a  higher  social  state  than  the  world  has  yet  seen, 
having  latent  in  itself  much  of  the  best  legislation 
of  the  present  time  as  well  as  the  glorious  features 
of  that  Golden  Age,  that  perfect  state,  which  the 
prophets  so  marvelously  pictured. 

Even  a  mere  outline  study  of  this  Torah  sug- 
gests the  thought  that  when  our  Lord  said  that 
he  came  to  fulfil  this  law,  he  meant  something 
which  the  world  has  yet  to  learn  and  be  the  better 
for.  Surely  it  can  hardly  be  possible  that  in  the 
words,  "  I  came  not  to  destroy  the  law  but  to  ful- 
fil it,"  he  could  have  meant  us  to  understand  that 
he  proposed  to  abrogate  the  law.  Certainly  he 
did  not,  so  far  as  the  Ten  Commandments  are 
concerned.  We  call  the  Ten  Commandments  the 
moral  law,  and  say  that  of  course  that  stands 
while  all  the  rest  has  been  done  away  with.  But  a 
little  study  will  serve  to  show  that  all  the  laws 
given  by  God  to  the  children  of  Israel  were  moral 
laws.  Some  of  these  laws  concern  the  individual, 
some  the  family,  some  the  nation ;  some  concern 
the  civil  life,  some  the  religious ;  some  are  ceremo- 
nial, some  civil,  some  juristic ;  and  all  of  them 
appear  to  stand  on  precisely  the  same  plane  of 
obligation.     Laws  of  ceremonial  and  laws  of  so- 


330         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

cial  life  are  interspersed  among  one  another  in 
the  same  chapter.  There  is  not  the  slightest  hint 
that  one  is  of  less  ethical  importance  than  an- 
other. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  law  is  not  susceptible  of 
development;  that  the  will  of  God  might  not  be 
progressively  revealed.  The  very  name  by  which 
the  children  of  Israel  called  their  law  —  Torah, 
or  "instruction" — shows  that  it  has  this  prop- 
erty, just  as  a  parent's  instruction  of  his  children 
goes  through  a  process  of  development  with  the 
child's  advancing  years  and  enlarging  moral  ca- 
pacity. It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  many  of  the 
laws  given  in  Exodus  are  repeated  with  impor- 
tant modifications  in  Deuteronomy,  and  a  careful 
study  of  the  whole  Torah  shows  a  number  of 
longer  and  shorter  codes  which  appear  to  have 
been  given  at  different  times,  and  in  which  are 
found  occasional  modifications  of  certain  laws 
previously  given.  One  of  the  laws  of  household 
service,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  was  so  modified. 
The  forty  years  of  the  wilderness  journey  gave 
time  for  something  of  this  kind ;  and  it  is  a  matter 
of  no  consequence  to  our  present  study  whether 
or  not  those  scholars  are  right  who  think  that 
this  process  of  developing  the  Torah,  this  educa- 
tion of  the  Jews  in  human  and  divine  relations, 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      331 

continued   for  a  very  much  longer  period,  even 
into  times  after  the  exile.2 

Although  we  cannot  conceive  of  any  of  God's 
laws  being  founded  on  anything  but  immutable 
ethical  principles,  yet  we  can  conceive  of  them  as 
being  so  adapted  to  conditions  as  to  be,  not  so 
much  a  final  statement  of  man's  obligation,  as  a 
preparation  for  such  a  statement,  a  shadow  of 
good  things  to  come.  Of  this  character  are  the 
laws  that  we  call  ceremonial,  most  mistakenly 
using  the  word  as  an  antithesis  to  moral.  The 
ceremonial  laws  are  profoundly  ethical  and  were 
of  temporary  obligation,  not  because  they  were 
not  ethical,  but  because  they  were  adapted  to  con- 


*  Scholars  are  now  practically  agreed  that  the  laws  found  in 
general  in  Ex.,  chaps.  20-34,  represent  such  a  growth  as  every- 
where takes  place  among  a  semi-civilized  people,  when  the  decisions 
of  judges,  chieftains,  kings,  and  priests  pass  into  custom  and  be- 
come law.  Ex.  18:  13-27  indicates  something  of  this;  and  these 
earliest  laws  are  designed  chiefly  for  the  guidance  of  such  judges. 
They  are  attributed  to  the  period  from  Moses  to  about  800  b.  c, 
or  about  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Joash.  The  deuteronomic  code, 
which,  whenever  written,  was  presented  to  the  people  and  ratified 
by  them  in  the  reign  of  Josiah  (ca.  623  b.  c. ;  2  Kings  23:3),  was 
intended  for  the  guidance,  not  of  the  judges,  but  of  the  whole 
people.  The  Holiness  Code  (Lev.,  chap.  17—26)  probably  comes 
next,  and  appears  to  be  a  collection  of  laws  of  which  some  are 
as  early  as  Moses,  and  most  were  enacted  during  the  existence  of 
the  first  temple,  but  which  were  codified  about  the  time  of  Ezekiel. 
The  remainder  of  Leviticus  and  the  laws  found  in  Numbers  appear 
to  belong  to  the  Priestly  Code,  brought  from  Babylon  by  Ezra, 
but  with  many  subsequent  revisions  and  additions.  The  Ten  Com- 
mandments, in  their  existing  form  (Ex.  20:  1  — 17),  are  supposed 
to  be  a  priestly  revision  of  the  "  Ten  Words  "  of  the  earliest  code, 
which  are  believed  to  have  been  brief  commands,  like  the  present 
form  of  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  commandments.  Never- 
theless, as  inspired  leader,  prophet,  and  judge  Moses  was,  as  Pro- 
fessor Kent  says,  in  a  very  real  sense  the  father  of  Israel's  insti- 
tutions and  laws. 


332         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

ditions.  They  were  intended,  not  to  be  simply 
swept  away  at  last  as  if  they  had  not  been,  but  to 
expand  into  a  more  intelligent  and  beautiful  cere- 
monial. 

We  have  only  to  compare  the  ceremonial  laws 
of  the  Torah  with  the  religious  rites  of  the  most 
enlightened  peoples  that  lived  near  Canaan,  Phoe- 
nicia, Egypt,  Syria,  Moab,  to  see  that  the  cere- 
monial laws  of  the  Hebrews  were  an  enormous 
ethical  advance  on  the  ceremonial  laws  of  other 
nations,  a  marvelous  advance  beyond  anything 
Israel  had  ever  seen  or  practiced  before.  At  the 
time  when  they  were  given,  and  for  generations 
after,  the  ceremonial  laws  may  well  have  been  far 
more  important  to  Israel,  for  ethical  training  as 
well  as  for  spiritual  uplift,  than  the  laws  we  now 
distinguish  as  moral.  It  was  not  their  typical 
significance  which  made  them  important  to  the 
Jews,  however  important  it  may  make  them  to  us. 
To  them  it  was  their  deeply  moral  import  that 
made  the  ceremonial  laws  so  valuable.  But  in  the 
nature  of  things,  ceremonial  is  subject  to  change, 
for  it  cannot  but  be  adapted,  not  only  to  advanc- 
ing moral  character,  but  to  varying  conditions. 
The  exiled  Jews  were  unable  to  keep  the  ceremo- 
nial laws  in  Babylon,  and  yet  it  was  the  memory 
of  their  ceremonial  observances  that  kept  alive 
during  this  period  the  conviction  that  they  were 
the  children  of  God. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      333 

The  importance  of  these  ceremonial  laws  being, 
therefore,  so  much  more  fundamental  than  is  com- 
monly supposed,  so  intimately  related  to  that  de- 
velopment which  fitted  the  Jewish  nation  to  be 
the  matrix  of  Christianity,  it  is  with  reluctance 
that  I  leave  this  important  part  of  the  Torah  in 
this  place,  without  even  a  glance  at  its  particulars. 

II 

It  will  be  remembered  that,  when  one  of  the 
New  England  colonies  was  first  settled,  it  was 
agreed  that  "  in  the  absence  of  special  laws  the 
rules  of  the  Word  of  God  [in  the  Torah]  were 
to  be  followed ;  "  and  that  another  New  England 
colony  in  its  articles  of  organization  laid  down  the 
fundamental  principle  that  the  community  would 
be  ordered  in  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  affairs 
by  scriptural  (that  is,  Mosaic)  rules.  Perhaps 
these  resolutions  were  due  much  less  than  is  gen- 
erally supposed  to  the  fact  that  these  colonists 
were  Bible-loving  Puritans,  and  far  more  than 
is  supposed  to  the  fact  that  they  were  astute  and 
far-seeing  legislators,  better  aware  than  most  peo- 
ple have  ever  been  of  the  admirable  practicability 
of  the  Mosaic  laws  and  their  fine  adaptability  to 
a  very  high  state  of  civilization. 

Whether  or  not  this  is  the  case,  one  thing  be- 
comes evident  to  those  who  study  the  Mosaic 
legislation  most  deeply :  that  it  contains  all  the 


334         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

essential  principles  of  liberty,  and  even  of  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government.  Not  only  is  the  Deca- 
logue the  basis  of  every  declaration  of  the  rights 
of  man  that  has  ever  been  made,  but  the  analogy 
between  the  form  of  government  contemplated  in 
the  Mosaic  legislation  and  the  general  outlines  of 
our  own  federal  union  is  startlingly  close.  But 
no  doubt  to  our  Puritan  ancestors  the  greatest 
value  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  lay  in  the  intimate 
association  of  the  religious  with  the  moral  life. 
The  Torah  was  the  living  link  between  the  human 
and  the  divine,  and  these  exiles  to  a  new  country 
knew  how  to  value  such  a  link.  The  history  of 
the  development  of  the  freedmen,  whose  religious 
life  during  slavery  had  been  so  intense,  while  in 
the  nature  of  things  dissociated  from  moral  disci- 
pline, makes  clear  the  value  of  such  a  link. 

Now,  the  closeness  of  this  link,  and  its  incalcu- 
lable value  to  Israel  and  to  our  Puritan  ancestors, 
as  well  as  to  all  who  can  appreciate  it,  lies  in 
something  quite  different  from  the  fact  that  all 
law  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  a  revelation  of 
God.  It  lies  in  the  particular  character  of  the 
Mosaic  law,  the  nature  of  God's  revelation  to 
Israel,  and  the  ground  on  which  he  gave  this 
Torah  to  them.  The  ground  on  which  God 
claimed  the  obedience  of  Israel  was  distinctly  not 
that  he  was  the  only  true  God.  The  first  com- 
mandment does  not  say  that  he  is  the  only  God, 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      335 

but  that  Israel  must  worship  none  other  than  him. 
This  first  commandment  rests  on  the  ground  of 
Israel's  relation  to  Jehovah,  not  on  the  ground  of 
Jehovah's  unique  Godhead.  Whenever  during 
the  legislative  period  God  claims  Israel's  alle- 
giance, it  is  always  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
Israel  stands  in  a  relation  of  grace  to  Jehovah. 
"  Ye  have  seen  what  I  did  unto  the  Egyptians, 
and  how  I  bare  you  on  eagles'  wings  and  brought 
you  unto  myself." 3  The  preface  to  the  Ten 
Commandments  explicitly  states  this  as  the  reason 
why  Israel  shall  have  no  other  God :  "  I  am  Je- 
hovah thy  God  which  have  brought  thee  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 
Thou  shalt  have  no  other  God  before  me."  4 
Children's  children  were  always  to  be  taught  that 
this  was  the  ground  on  which  their  keeping  of  the 
law  was  to  be  based : 

When  thy  son  asketh  in  time  to  come,  saying,  What 
be  the  testimonies,  the  statutes  and  the  judgments  which 
Jehovah  our  God  hath  commanded  you?  Then  thou  shalt 
say  unto  thy  son :  We  were  Pharoah's  bondsmen  in 
Egypt,  and  Jehovah  brought  out  of  Egypt  with  a  mighty 
hand,  and  ....  Jehovah  commanded  us  to  do  all  these 
statutes.5 

If  affliction  ever  came  upon  a  nation,  it  would  be 
"  because  they  forsook  the  covenant  of  Jehovah, 
the  God  of  their  fathers,  which  he  made  when  he 

•Ex.   19:4.  'Ex.  20:2.  *  Deut.  6:20-24. 


336         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

brought  them  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt."  6 
In  other  words,  the  law  was  given  because  of  the 
gracious  relation  already  existing  between  Jeho- 
vah and  Israel,  and  all  its  morality  is  based  on 
piety.  Jehovah  was  Israel's  Savior,  and  for  this 
reason  they  ought  to  obey  him:  Redemption 
through  grace  is  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  law. 
The  gospel  is  not  a  departure  from  the  law  nor 
an  abrogation  of  it,  but  the  natural  development 
of  the  law,  its  perfected  form. 

This  is  why  the  law,  being  a  gift  of  grace,  was 
by  no  means  the  irksome  institution  we  commonly 
think  it  to  have  been.  It  was  the  joy  and  pride 
of  Israel  —  a  sovereign  honor  conferred  by  God. 

For  what  great  nation  is  there  that  hath  a  god  so 
nigh  unto  them  as  Jehovah  our  God  is  whensoever  we 
call  upon  him?  ....  For  ask  now  of  the  days  that  are 
past,  which  were  before  thee,  since  the  day  that  God 
created  man  upon  the  earth,  whether  there  hath  been  any 
such  thing  as  this  thing  is?7  [The  giving  of  the  Ten 
Commandments.] 

Blessed  is  the  people  that  know  the  joyful  sound.8 

The  delight  of  the  good  man  was  in  the  law  of 
Jehovah.  Such  psalms  as  1,  19,  112,  119  express 
the  rapture  of  the  true  Israel  in  contemplating 
the  law. 

Furthermore,  it  is  not  to  be  questioned  that 
the  obedience  of  Israel  to  the  rule  of  Jehovah 
was  a  matter  of  free  compact;  that  they  elected 

•Deut.   29:23.  T  Deut.  4:7.    32.  8  Ps.   89:15. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY     337 

him  to  be  their  sovereign  before  lie  gave  them 
the  Ten  Commandments.  "  All  that  Jehovah 
hath  spoken  will  we  do,"  was  their  answer  to 
Moses  when  first  encamped  at  Sinai.9  And  again 
after  receiving  the  first  code  of  laws,  which  in- 
cluded the  Ten  Commandments,  "  all  the  people 
answered  with  one  voice  and  said,  All  the  words 
which  Jehovah  hath  said  will  we  do,"  10  thus  rati- 
fying their  previous  free  choice  of  God  to  be  their 
ruler. 

A  careful  reading  shows  that  the  group  of  laws 
which  immediately  follow  the  commandments  n 
are  a  code  by  themselves.  This  code  is  commonly 
called  "  The  Book  of  the  Covenant,"  because,  as 
the  next  chapter  tells  us,  Moses  wrote  all  these 
words  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  and  read  it  to 
the  people.  At  this  time  they  ratified  their  former 
election  of  God,  saying :  "  All  that  Jehovah  hath 
said  will  we  do,  and  will  be  obedient ;  "  this  cove- 
nant being  sealed  in  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice  that 
had  just  been  offered.12 

In  the  thirty-fourth  chapter  of  Exodus  we  find 
a  short  code  commonly  called  "  The  Little  Book 
of  the  Covenant,"  because,  as  we  are  told,  "  Jeho- 
vah said  unto  Moses,  Write  thou  these  words. 
for  after  the  tenor  of  the  words  I  have  made  a 
covenant  with  thee  and  Israel."     The  first  and 

•Ex.    19:8.  u  Ex.    20:20  —  23:33. 

"Ex.   24:  3,   7.  12Ex.   24:  5-8. 


338         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

larger  of  these  covenants  13  forbids  the  making  of 
images  for  worship,  describes  the  place  of  wor- 
ship (an  altar  of  earth  or  unhewn  stones),  gives 
laws  about  bond-servants,  about  capital  offenses, 
injury  to  the  person  and  property,  the  principles 
of  loans  and  trusts,  an  important  law  about  wom- 
en, rules  for  the  administration  of  justice,  the  sab- 
bath law,  the  three  great  feasts,  the  elementary 
rules  about  sacrifices,  and  a  law  of  kindliness; 
thus  including  civil,  criminal,  juristic,  social,  and 
religious  laws.  The  Little  Book  of  the  Covenant, 
though  shorter,  is  of  much  the  same  character. 
Another  code  may  easily  be  recognized ; 14  it  is 
called  the  Holiness  Code.  It  is  a  very  interesting 
collection  of  laws,  based  on  the  statement  of  God, 
"  I  am  Jehovah."  This  statement,  with  occasion- 
al additions,  occurs  forty-seven  times  in  this  code, 
coming  in  like  a  refrain  and  evidently  with  the 
usual  purpose  of  the  refrain,  to  aid  the  memory. 
This  body  of  laws  receives  its  name  of  Holiness 
Code  from  the  opening  words  of  chap.  19 :  "  Ye 
shall  be  holy,  for  I,  Jehovah  your  God,  am  holy," 
all  its  statutes  being  based  on  God's  holiness. 
Next  to  the  Book  of  the  Covenant,  this  is  the  most 
important  and  interesting  code  until  we  come  to 
Deuteronomy.  Before  this,  however,  are  several 
other  codes :  in  Exodus,  a  code  of  laws  about  the 
tabernacle  and  the  priesthood ; 15  in  Leviticus,  a 

13  Ex.    20:20  —  23:33.  18  Ex.,  chaps.  25-30. 

14  Lev.,  chaps.   17-26. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY     339 

code  of  laws  of  sacrifice,  purification,  and  atone- 
ment ; 16  a  brief  code  at  the  close  of  that  book  re- 
lating to  vows  and  tithes ;  17  a  short  code  in  Num- 
bers relating  to  the  priests  and  Levites,  and  to  the 
rite  of  purification,18  and  another  of  five  chap- 
ters 19  containing  the  law  of  inheritance  of  daugh- 
ters,20 the  priestly  calendar  of  public  sacrifice,  and 

the  law  of  vows. 

Ill  ( 

The  question  of  the  laboring  classes  —  the  re- 
lation of  labor  to  capital,  as  we  phrase  it  —  has 
become  so  importunate  in  this  time  in  which  we 
live  that  it  is  almost  startling  to  find  a  similar 
question  taking  front  rank  in  the  Torah ;  and 
that  one  phase  of  it,  the  relation  of  employer  and 
employed,  has  the  very  first  place  after  duty  to 
Jehovah,  in  the  very  first  code  given  after  the 
Ten  Commandments  —  that  Book  of  the  Cove- 
nant which  immediately  follows  the  Decalogue.21 
Of  course,  among  agricultural  people  of  that  time, 
not  only  the  household  servant  but  the  farm  labor- 
er, the  chief  employe,  was  a  slave.  Slavery  was 
the  almost  universal  form  of  servitude  in  ancient 
times,  and  Israel  was  like  other  nations  in  this 

18  Lev.,  chaps.   1—7. 

17  Lev.,  chap.  27. 

18  Num.,  chaps.    18,    19. 
10  Num.,  chaps.   27-31. 

50  Modified  36:8,  9  to  meet  a  new  contingency. 
"  Ex.   20:  20  —  23:  33. 


340  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

respect.  But  the  status  of  the  slave  was  so  differ- 
ent in  Israel,  and  indeed  in  all  the  East  at  that 
time,  from  modern  slavery,  that  the  translators 
of  the  Revised  Version  did  perfectly  right  in 
never  using  the  word  "  slave  "  and  substituting 
for  it  the  words  "  bondman  "  and  "  bondwoman." 
The  word  "  servant  "  in  the  Authorized  Version, 
does  not  give  an  accurate  idea. 

Slavery  was  so  universal  in  ancient  times  that 
we  find  so  great  a  moralist  and  so  wise  a  political 
economist  as  Aristotle  laying  it  down  as  a  princi- 
ple that  slavery  was  essential  to  the  well-being 
of  the  state,  and  we  know  that  this  was  the  almost 
universal  belief.  How  striking  it  is  then  to  find 
that  Israel's  legislation  ordained  that  no  Hebrew 
might  be  sold  as  a  bondman  under  any  circum- 
stances except  that  of  being  a  thief  unable  to 
make  restitution  for  theft.22  If  he  were  bitterly 
poor,  he  could  sell  himself,23  but  no  one  else  could 
sell  him  as  a  poor  man.24  In  no  case  could  own- 
ership of  a  Hebrew  by  another  last  longer  than 
six  years,  whatever  the  cause  of  his  servitude.25 
In  the  sabbatical  year,  which  occurred  once  in 
seven  years,  every  Hebrew  went  free.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  it  was  taken  for  granted  that 

22  Ex.   22:  36. 

23  Lev.  25:39,  47;  cf.  vss.  44,  46. 

M  Compare  the  farming  out  of  paupers  in  some  of  our  own 
states. 

25  Ex.  21:2. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      341 

the  economic  condition  of  the  self-enslaved  poor 
man  would  have  so  improved  during  his  years  of 
bondage  that  he  could  go  on  as  a  free  man  after 
that.  And  the  bondman  always,  at  any  time  dur- 
ing these  six  years,  had  the  right  to  redeem  him- 
self or  to  be  redeemed  by  a  relative.26  The  only 
exception  to  the  sabbatical  enfranchisement  was 
the  case  of  the  bondman  who,  during  his  servi- 
tude, might  have  married  and  had  children,  and 
who  for  love  of  them  preferred  to  remain  with 
his  master.27  But  the  later  legislation  of  Leviti- 
cus brings  this  condition  of  servitude  to  an  end  in 
the  jubilee  year.28 

It  seems  barbarous  to  sell  a  man  for  debt,  but 
this  law,  with  its  release  in  the  seventh,  or  even 
in  the  fiftieth  year,  was  incomparably  more  hu- 
mane than  laws  of  imprisonment  for  debt  which 
until  very  lately  prevailed  in  England ;  and  it  was 
based  on  a  better  economic  principle  than  impris- 
onment, not  only  in  the  case  of  the  debtor,  but 
also  in  that  of  the  thief;  for  instead  of  keeping 
them  in  idleness  at  the  public  charge,  the  labor 
of  both  was  turned  to  the  profit  of  those  who  had 
lost  by  their  means,  or  to  that  of  the  state.  The 
provision  for  the  self-enslavement  of  the  poor 
man,   however  shocking  it  may  seem,   is  much 

19  Lev.   25:  48,  49. 
17  Ex.   31 :  4-6. 

28  Lev.   25:39-41.     The  longer  period  of  servitude  carried   with 
it   restoration  to  his  possessions  when  enfranchisement  came. 


342         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

more  truly  humane,  wise,  and  economic  than  the 
system  which  fosters  tramps,  and  ends  in  that 
foul  sink,  pauperization,  which  is  the  disgrace  of 
all  modern  social  systems.  There  was  no  "  sub- 
merged tenth  "  in  Israel,  and  the  position  of  the 
self-enslaved  poor  man  was  most  delicately  guard- 
ed. "  Thou  shalt  not  make  him  to  serve  as  a 
bondman ;  as  a  hired  servant,  and  as  a  sojourner 
(a  guest)29  he  shall  be  with  thee  .... 
(like  the  poor  relations  who  are  so  often  the  bless- 
ing of  our  homes)  for  they  are  my  servants,  which 
I  brought  out  of  Egypt ;  they  shall  not  be  sold  as 
bondmen."  30  The  entire  law  was  based  upon  the 
relation  of  Israel  to  Jehovah.  Very  careful  pro- 
vision was  made  that  the  released  bondman  should 
not  at  once  fall  again  into  poverty.  A  better  pro- 
vision than  modern  prison-gate  missions  are  able 
to  make  lies  in  the  law  that  in  the  sabbatic  year 
the  released  bondman  was  not  to  be  sent  away 
destitute : 

Thou  shalt  furnish  him  liberally  out  of  thy  flock  and 
out  of  thy  threshing  floor,  and  out  of  thy  wine  press ;  as 
Jehovah,  thy  God,  has  blessed  thee,  thou  shalt  give  unto 
him.31 

The  personal  rights  of  the  bondman  were  care- 
fully guarded.  His  right  to  the  weekly  sabbath 
rest  was  important  enough  to  have  a  place  in  the 

29  Lev.  25:  39-42. 

10  The   general   force   of   the   word   "  sojourner "   will  be  consid- 
ered later.     Here   it  obviously  means  a  guest. 
a  Deut    15:  12-14. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      343 

Decalogue,  emphasized  in  the  deuteronomic  ver- 
sion of  the  Ten  Commandments  — "  that  thy 
bondman  and  bondwoman  may  rest  as  well  as 
thou."  32  The  infliction  upon  him  by  his  master 
of  such  an  injury  as  the  loss  of  an  eye,  or  even  a 
tooth,  gave  him  the  immediate  right  to  liberty.33 
If  the  owner  punished  his  bondman  with  such 
severity  that  he  died  under  the  rod,  the  owner 
himself  was  to  be  punished.34  It  is  true  the  law 
adds:  "  Nevertheless  if  he  continue  a  day  or  two 
he  shall  not  be  punished,  for  he  is  his  money." 
And  this  sounds  cold-blooded ;  but  we  may  recall 
to  mind  that  precisely  this  ground  was  taken  un- 
der our  own  slave  system :  the  money  loss  was 
held  to  be  the  master's  sufficient  punishment  for 
having  fatally  injured  his  slave ;  while  to  institute 
inquiry  whether  the  unfortunate  creature  died  un- 
der his  master's  hand,  or  lingered  a  day  or  two, 
was  not  so  much  as  thought  of. 

In  Israel  the  oppressed  slave  always  had  the 
refuge  of  flight.  "  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto 
his  master  a  servant  which  is  escaped  from  his 
master  unto  thee.  He  shall  dwell  among  thee  in 
any  of  thy  cities  where  it  liketh  him  best.     Thou 


85  Deut.  5:  14. 

88  Ex.  21:26,  27.  The  Hammurabi  Code  enacts  that  he  who 
caused  the  injury  shall  pay  half  the  slave's  price  to  the  master, 
who  alone   is  supposed  to  be  the  injured  party. 

**  Ex.  21 :  20. 


344         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

shalt  not  oppress  him."  35  Apologists  for  Ameri- 
can slavery  always  justified  the  system  on  Bible 
grounds ;  but  this  law  was  evidently  overlooked 
by  the  framers  of  that  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  whose 
enactment  occurred  within  the  memory  of  some 
now  living,  impelling  Mrs.  Stowe  to  write  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin.36  Man-stealing  with  a  view  to  en- 
slavement was  a  capital  crime :  "  that  thief  shall 
die."  37 

All  nations  enslaved  prisoners  of  war,  and  Is- 
rael did  the  same;  the  Torah  permitted  aliens  to 
be  enslaved  in  perpetuity,  and  to  be  bequeathed 
to  children  and  children's  children ; 3S  but  this 
seems  to  be  a  provision  of  humanity,  since  under 
the  Hebrew  institutions  they  could  own  no  land ; 
and  the  subsequent  history  of  Israel  gives  so  many 
instances  of  such  slaves  being  merged  in  the  fami- 
lies of  those  who  owned  them  and  becoming  a 
part  of  the  great  family  of  Israel,  that  it  is  evi- 
dent that  they  stood  upon  very  much  the  same 
high  ground  of  privilege  as  other  bondmen  and 
aliens  not  enslaved. 

When  we  recall  to  mind  that  in  nearly  all  lan- 

45  Deut.   23:  15,    16. 

*•  The  Hammurabi  Code  shows  greater  sympathy  with  our  legis- 
lation than  with  that  of  Moses.  It  went  farther,  however,  and 
decreed  the  death  penalty  for  him  who  did  not  produce  the  fugitive 
"  at  the  demand  of  the  commandant  "  or  who  hid  him  in  his  house. 

87  Deut.  24:7;  Ex.  21:  16.  The  Hammurabi  Code  makes  it  a 
capital  crime  to  steal  a  slave,  the  interest  being  not  in  human  but 
in  property  rights. 

38  Lev.   25  :  45,  46. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY    345 

guages  of  the  world  the  same  word  does  duty  for 
"  foreigner  "  and  "  enemy  " — that  being  the  case 
in  the  primary  meaning  of  the  word  in  languages 
so  recent  even  as  the  Italian  and  the  German  — 
the  delicate  consideration  with  which  the  foreign- 
er is  treated  in  the  Mosaic  legislation  is  simply 
amazing.  It  points  directly  to  the  perfect  state, 
and  is  the  beginning  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  prom- 
ise to  Abraham,  the  blessing  of  all  men.  I  have 
counted  seventeen  places  where  the  stranger  is 
either  made  the  subject  of  special  legislation  or 
else  is  grouped  with  those  objects  of  God's  pecu- 
liar solicitude,  the  widow  and  the  fatherless.  And 
as  if  to  make  doubly  sure  the  assurance  that  the 
special  laws  for  the  stranger  shall  be  kept,  they 
are  always  based  upon  the  pathetic  memory  of 
Israel's  own  experience :  39  "  Thou  shalt  not  op- 
press a  stranger  —  for  ye  know  the  heart  of  a 
stranger,  seeing  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land  of 
Egypt.  Thou  shalt  love  him  as  thyself,  for  ye 
were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt."  The  resi- 
dent foreigner  was  to  have  the  same  right  as  Is- 
rael to  the  protection  of  the  cities  of  refuge,  and 
to  public  justice ; 40  there  was  to  be  "  one  law  for 
the  stranger  and  for  him  that  was  born  in  the 
land."  The  resident  foreigner  had  a  right,  with 
the  poor,  the  fatherless,  and  the  widow,  to  the 

*»  Ex.   22:21;  23:9;  Lev.   19:33.  34.  etc. 
w  Ex.    12:49;    Num.    15:16. 


346         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

gleanings  of  the  fields  and  the  vineyards,  and 
the  spontaneous  fruits  of  the  sabbatical  year.41 
Even  to  the  sacred  feasts  he  had  access  on  con- 
dition of  being  circumcised.42  Only  in  three 
things  was  a  difference  to  be  made :  A  foreigner 
might  never  be  king ;  43  usury,  that  is  interest, 
might  be  asked  of  him ;  44  and  if  a  prisoner  of  war 
he  might  be  perpetually  enslaved,  under  the  mild 
slave  system  of  Israel.45 

IV 

One  of  the  burning  questions  of  today  is  the 
ownership  of  land.  The  accumulation  of  large 
tracts  of  land  in  the  possession  of  individuals  or 
of  syndicates  is  fast  becoming  a  serious  menace 
to  the  prosperity  of  this  country,  as  well  as  of 
Great  Britain.  The  natural,  almost  inevitable, 
consequence  of  this  state  of  things  is  the  social- 
istic doctrine  of  the  public  ownership  of  land. 
With  marvelous  wisdom  the  Mosaic  legislation 
keeps  clear  of  both  these  evils  —  the  excessive 
individualism  which  permits  a  single  man  to  ac- 
cumulate vast  possessions,  and  socialism  which 
gives  all  the  land  to  the  state. 

The  principle  of  land-ownership  is  distinctly 
laid  down  in  Lev.  25  :  23 :  "  The  land  is  mine." 
The  whole  land  of  Canaan  was  God's  and  was  by 

"Ex.  23:  ii  ;  Lev.   19:  10;  Deut.   14:  19—22. 
"Ex.   12:44,  48.  "Deut.  23:20. 

41  Deut.    17:  15.  *•  Lev.  25:45,  46. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      347 

him  given  to  the  nation  to  be  divided  between  the 
600,000  families  of  Israel.  Each  father  of  a  fam- 
ily had  his  own  homestead,  tilling  his  own  land 
and  sitting  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree;  but 
no  one  had  an  absolute  right  in  this  property  of 
God.  In  case  of  poverty  a  man  might  sell  his 
land,  but  not  "  forever" — that  is,  in  perpetuity; 
he  might  not  so  impoverish  his  heirs.40  Nor  could 
the  rich,  however  wealthy,  accumulate  large  es- 
tates. Not  only  had  the  original  owner  of  the 
land  the  right  of  redemption  at  any  time,  but  his 
next  of  kin  might  redeem  it  for  him.  In  any  case 
it  returned  to  his  family  in  the  jubilee  year.47 

The  one  exception  was  the  land  of  the  Levites, 
which  might  in  no  case  be  sold.48 

Far  from  such  provisions  having  a  socialistic 
tendency,  they  were  eminently  calculated  to 
heighten  a  true  individualism.  It  is  doubtful  if 
any  legislation  has  so  effective  a  via  media  be- 
tween socialism  and  a  selfish  and  unscrupulous  in- 
dividualism in  the  matter  of  land-tenure.49 

With  such  a  land  system  it  is  needless  to  say 

*•  Lev.  25:  23. 

"  Lev.   25:  25-31. 

48  Lev.   25:  34. 

49  The  Hammurabi  Code  has  little  to  say  about  land-ownership, 
except  that  one  in  public  service  (an  officer  or  a  constable)  may  not 
neglect  the  cultivation  of  his  land,  but  must  provide  a  substitute 
for  himself,  wife,  son,  or  another.  There  is  an  express  prohibition 
of  the  sale  of  the  land  of  such  a  one.  On  the  other  hand,  a  mer- 
chant or  a  foreign  sojourner  is  expressly  permitted  to  sell  his  real 
estate.  There  is  much  about  the  duties  of  lessees  and  metayers, 
much  about   trespass;   and  irrigation   laws  are  very  strict. 


348         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

that  the  law  contemplates  a  separate  house  for 
each  family.50  Even  in  cities  this  is  the  case. 
Such  a  system  of  housing  the  poor  as  now  curses 
civilized  peoples,  reaching  even  into  country  vil- 
lages, was  impossible  in  Palestine.  Not  only  had 
each  family  its  separate  house,  but  the  laws  both 
as  to  construction  and  sanitation  were  explicit 
and  rigid.  Sanitary  inspectors  tell  us  that  the 
description  in  Leviticus  of  the  "  leprosy  of  a 
house  "  precisely  describes  conditions  well  known 
to  them  in  old  buildings,  and  that  the  only  known 
remedies  are  those  which  are  there  prescribed.51 
The  rules  for  the  destruction  of  offal  and  refuse 
were  very  strict ;  there  were  no  cesspools,  no 
kitchen-middens  in  Palestine,  no  such  dung-hills 
as  in  the  early  part  of  last  century  stood  before 
every  cottage  door  in  Scotland,  no  such  ash-heap 
as  Job  and  his  friends  sat  upon  together. 

All  these  regulations  tended  directly  to  pre- 
serve the  sacredness  of  the  family.  The  rights 
of  children  as  to  inheritance  were  jealously  guard- 
ed.52 The  eldest  son,  upon  whom  would  fall  the 
burden  of  the  widows,  unmarried  daughters,  and 
poor  members  of  the  family,  had  a  double  portion. 

60  Implied  in  such  passages  as  Num.  26:53,  54;  33=54;  Deut. 
40:  20. 

"Lev.   14:  33-53- 

62  Num.  27:8-11;  36:8,  9;  Deut.  31:16,  17.  The  Hammurabi 
Code,  with  very  evident  desire  for  strict  justice  (§§  167-71),  yet 
permits  favoritism  on  the  part  of  the  father  (§  165)  or  the  widowed 
mother   (§  150). 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY  349 

The  other  sons  all  shared  alike.  It  was  rigidly 
enacted  that  in  case  of  more  than  one  wife  the 
son  of  the  favorite  might  not  be  preferred  before 
the  son  of  the  less  beloved,  if  the  latter  were  the 
elder. 

V 
No  other  system  of  jurisprudence  in  any  coun- 
try at  any  period  is  marked  with  such  humanity 
with  respect  to  the  unfortunate.  We  have  already 
seen  something  of  this  with  regard  to  the  poor 
man  and  the  debtor.  The  widow  and  the  father- 
less were  always  the  peculiar  care  of  God;  the 
severest  penalties  were  pronounced  against  their 
oppressors : 

Ye  shall  not  afflict  any  widow,  or  fatherless  child. 
If  thou  afflict  them  in  any  wise,  and  they  cry  at  all  unto 
me,  I  will  surely  hear  their  cry;  and  my  wrath  shall  wax 
hot,  and  I  will  kill  you  with  the  sword;  and  your  wives 
shall  be  widows,  and  your  children  be  fatherless.53 

Thou  shall  not  pervert  the  judgment  of  the  stranger, 
nor  of  the  fatherless;  nor  take  the  widow's  raiment  to 
pledge.54 

Three  classes,  the  widow,  the  fatherless,  and 
the  resident   alien,    were   always  to   be  remem- 

6:1  Ex.  22:22—24;  Deut.  27:  19.  The  Hammurabi  Code  considers 
only  the  dower  rights  of  the  widow  and  her  duty  to  minor  children. 
She  may  not  contract  a  second  marriage  without  consent  of  the 
judge,  and  the  second  husband  must  give  bonds  for  the  maintenance 
of  minor  children.  A  poor  widow  does  not  enter  the  purview 
of   the   Code.     Nor   do  destitute  children. 

64  Ex.  22:22—24;  Deut.  24:17.  Widows'  raiment  makes  half 
the  assets  of  our  pawn-shops. 


350         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

bered  when  the  harvest  was  carried  home ; 55  the 
corners  of  the  fields  were  not  to  be  reaped,  nor 
was  the  field  or  vineyard  to  be  gleaned,  and  if  by 
accident  a  sheaf  was  left  behind  in  the  field,  no 
one  was  to  go  back  for  it.  The  olive  trees  were 
not  to  be  twice  beaten  nor  the  vineyard  gone  over 
a  second  time;  all  that  was  left  was  for  these 
classes.  With  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  are 
thus  always  joined  the  poor  and  the  stranger  — 
the  resident  alien.56 

Those  who  deal  in  scientific  charity  are  wont  to 
say  that  if  every  poor  person  had  a  friendly  vis- 
itor —  a  prosperous  man  or  woman  as  a  real 
friend  —  the  problem  of  poverty  would  be  half 
solved.  This  was  precisely  the  case  contemplated 
by  the  Torah.  Every  householder  was  supposed 
to  be  in  immediate  relations  with  the  poor,  not 
only  through  these  laws  which  we  have  just  seen, 
but  by  the  law  that  made  the  poor  sharers  in  the 
joyful  feasts  of  the  prosperous.  In  the  Harvest 
Home,  the  Feast  of  Ingathering: 

Thou  shalt  rejoice  before  Jehovah,  thy  God,  thou  and 
thy  son,  and  thy  daughter,  and  thy  manservant,  and  thy 
maidservant,  and  the  Levite  that  is  within  thy  gates,  and 
the  stranger,  and  the  fatherless,  and  the  widow,  that  are 
among  you,  in  the  place  which  Jehovah  thy  God  hath 
chosen  to  place  his  name  there.57 

K  Lev.  19:  9,    10;   Deut.   24:  19-21. 
89  Deut.   24:  19. 
87  Deut.   16:  ix. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY     351 

Once  in  three  years  all  the  tithes,  which  other- 
wise went  for  the  maintenance  of  the  priesthood 
and  the  house  of  God,  were  to  be  shared  with  the 
sojourner,  the  fatherless,  and  the  widow.  The 
danger  of  pauperization  by  all  these  gifts  was 
carefully  guarded  against  by  three  methods :  by 
the  necessity  of  work  for  those  who  would  bene- 
fit by  the  gleanings  of  field  and  vineyard  and 
orchard,  by  the  sharing  with  their  benefactors  in 
the  joyful  feasts  (how  unlike  the  dinners  distrib- 
uted by  our  churches  and  benevolent  societies  at 
Thanksgiving  and  Christmastide),  and,  in  the 
case  of  the  tithe  of  the  third  year,  by  the  deeply 
religious  character  of  the  gift.  It  could  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  poor  only  at  the  close  of  a  solemn 
dedication  which  the  giver  said  before  Jehovah, 
apparently  in  the  presence  of  the  beneficiary.58 

And  the  sacred  character  of  the  gift  was  en- 
hanced by  the  fact  that  the  Levite  had  his  portion 
with  the  widow,  the  fatherless,  and  the  stranger. 
Under  such  laws  the  command,  "  There  shall  be 
no  poor  with  thee,"59  was  not  a  promise  but  a 
command :  "  Howbeit  let  there  be  no  poor  with 
thee,  for  Jehovah  will  surely  bless  thee  in  the 
land  which  Jehovah  thy  God  giveth  for  an  in- 
heritance to  possess  it:  if  only  thou  diligently 
hearken  unto  the  voice  of  Jehovah  thy  God,"  etc. 
And  so  our  Lord's  remark,  "  The  poor  ye  have 

MDeut.  26:13-15.  MDeut.   15:4. 


352         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

always  with  you,"  60  was  not  a  prophecy,  telling 
his  disciples  all  through  time  what  they  have  a 
right  to  expect,  but  the  statement  of  a  discredita- 
ble fact,  actually  prevailing  at  that  time,  and  due 
to  the  lapse  of  the  laws  from  active  functioning. 
Poverty  was  understood  to  be  merely  an  acci- 
dent, never  a  settled  condition,  and  it  was  the 
duty  of  every  man  to  prevent  it  as  far  as  possible 
by  a  special  care  for  any  neighbor  who  seemed 
to  be  "  waxing  poor."  01  Where  it  existed  pov- 
erty was  hedged  about  with  most  delicate  consid- 
eration. The  creditor  might  not  go  into  a  poor 
man's  house  to  take  the  article  pledged  as  securi- 
ty :  he  must  stand  outside  till  the  owner  brought 
it  to  him.62  The  widow's  raiment  might  never 
thus  be  pledged,  and  if  a  poor  man  pledged  his 
garment,  it  must  be  returned  to  him  before  sun- 
down, that  he  might  not  deep  cold.63     In  no  case 

60  John  12:  8. 

81  Lev.  25:35—38.  The  Hammurabi  Code  treats  the  poor  man, 
not  as  the  subject  of  special  consideration,  but  the  reverse.  If  one 
steals  an  animal  from  "  a  god  (temple)  or  a  palace  "  (a  priest  or  a 
man  of  rank  or  wealth),  he  is  to  pay  thirty- fold;  if  from  poor 
man,  tenfold.  The  poor  man,  like  the  fugitive  slave,  must  be  given 
up  at  the  demand  of  justice  (the  creditor)  under  pain  of  death. 
Whereas  an  injury  to  "  a  man's  (i.  e.,  gentleman's)"  eye,  limb,  or 
tooth  must  be  dealt  with  by  the  lex  talienis.  the  like  injury  to  a 
poor  man  may  be  condoned  on  payment  of  a  fine.  If  a  rich  man 
is  killed  by  accident,  the  fine  is  a  third  more  than  in  the  case  of 
a  poor  man.  These  distinctions  appear  in  part  to  rest  on  the  theory 
that  a  poor  man  values  money  more  than  honor.  The  fine  of  a  poor 
man  for  assault  is  a  third  of  that  of  "  a  man  (of  gentle  birth)." 
There  is  no  indication  of  the  delicate  consideration  of  the  poor 
everywhere  shown   in   the   Mosaic  legislation. 

92  Deut.  24:  10,    n. 

•*  Deut.    24:  17,    12,    13;    Ex.    22:25—27. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY     353 

was  interest  to  be  taken  from  a  brother-Israelite.64 
Modern  laws  concerning  mortgage  and  other  se- 
curity are  all  for  the  protection  of  the  creditor; 
in  Israel  they  were  for  the  protection  of  the 
debtor.  The  dignified  status  of  the  poor  man  is 
seen  in  the  ordinance  that  the  ransom  money 
which  each  individual  paid  to  Jehovah  was  to  be 
an  invariable  sum  —  half  a  shekel,  whatever  the 
ability  of  the  payer : 60  the  souls  of  poor  and  rich 
are  equally  precious  in  the  sight  of  God.  With 
all  these  delicate  provisions  for  the  poor,  there 
was  to  be  no  mawkish  sentimentality.  It  is  very 
striking  that  the  command  is  three  times  given, 
"  thou  shalt  not  favor  a  poor  man  in  his  cause."  66 
In  one  case  it  is  added,  "  nor  honor  the  person 
of  the  mighty ;  "  neither  sentimentality  nor  preju- 
dice, but  justice,  was  the  law. 

VI 
We  have  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  ob- 
serve the  honorable  status  of  woman  in  Israel. 
A  comparison  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  for  wom- 
en with  the  legislation  of  any  modern  state  —  the 
most  advanced  —  shows  how  far  the  best  civiliza- 
tion, in  matters  truly  essential,   falls  below  the 

•*  Deut.  23:  19,  20.  The  Hammurabi  Code  remits  interest  in 
case  of  destruction  of  crops  by  storm  or  drought.  In  other  cases 
it  permits  distraint  of  household  or  other  goods  where  crops  do  not 
suffice  to  meet  a  man's  indebtedness. 

85  Ex.   30:  12—15. 

••Ex.  23:3;  Lev.   19:15;  cf.  Deut.  1:17. 


354         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

pattern  given  in  the  Mount.  We  know  that 
women  could  not  only  inherit  but  buy  property, 
the  latter  with  no  other  restrictions  than  entered 
into  the  general  system,  the  former  with  only 
the  restriction  constitutionally  necessary,  that 
they  must  marry  within  their  own  tribe. 

Not  only  industrially,  so  far  as  we  can  see,67 
was  the  woman  on  a  par  with  the  man  (wise- 
hearted  women  working  with  Bezaleel  in  the 
making  of  the  tabernacle)  ;  but  the  intense  in- 
terest of  women  in  the  politics  of  their  country 
shines  out  from  every  page.  There  were  women 
among  the  prophets  and  among  the  sages,  and 
one  woman  at  least,  Huldah  the  prophetess,  was 
a  member  of  the  privy  council  of  the  king.68 

One  reason  —  the  reason  perhaps  —  why  wom- 
an held  so  exalted  a  status  in  Israel,  was  the 
conception  of  the  functions  of  man  in  the  state. 
As  a  recent  writer  has  remarked,  the  question  at 
the  root  of  all  political  systems  is  whether  man 
is  regarded  as  a  member  of  a  household,  or  only 
as  a  citizen  and  soldier.  If  the  latter,  then  the 
logical  result  is  that  women,  being  non-combat- 
ants,   must  stand   on  a  lower  plane  than   men. 

87  Ex.  3:  25,  26;  cf.  36:  6.  There  is  no  consideration  of  woman 
as  such  in  the  Hammurabi  Code.  She  is  wife,  widow,  daughter, 
or  votary  (devotee).  It  is  interesting,  in  view  of  some  of  our  own 
problems,  to  note  that  the  Hammurabi  Code  holds  neither  husband 
nor  wife  liable  for  debts  of  the  other  contracted  before  marriage; 
both  are  equally  liable  after   marriage. 

68  2  Kings   22:  14  ff. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      355 

But  in  Judea  men  were  not  regarded  as  soldiers 
and  citizens  first,  but  first  as  members  of  the 
family.  It  is  always  as  father,  husband,  son,  or 
brother  that  we  know  the  biblical  characters,  and 
the  status  of  women  is  therefore  wholly  different 
from  what  it  was  in  Rome,  where  household  re- 
lationships were  a  minor  consideration,  and  where 
the  husband  and  father,  being  first  of  all  soldier 
or  citizen,  had  almost  absolute  power,  not  only 
over  his  wife  and  daughter,  but  over  his  son  as 
well.  All  modern  civilization  is  based,  not  upon 
the  Hebrew,  but  upon  the  Roman  system.  May 
it  not  be  due  to  this  fact  that  at  least  the  theo- 
retical position  of  women  is  so  unsatisfactory, 
and  that  the  advocates  and  opponents  of  reform 
in  this  matter  are  alike  apt  to  be  unwise  and 
unjust? 

Whether  or  not  the  economic  position  of  wom- 
en among  the  Hebrews  was  all  that  would  satisfy 
the  twentieth  century,  it  is  certain  that  in  all 
sexual  relations  women's  interests  were  safe- 
guarded with  a  peculiar  care  utterly  unknown 
to  modern  legislation.  Undoubtedly  polygamy 
and  divorce  were  allowed.  It  cannot  be  said 
that  they  were  sanctioned;  they  existed  every- 
where at  that  period,  and  it  would  not  have  been 
in  accordance  with  the  law  of  moral  development 
if  among  the  Hebrew  people  they  had  been  sum- 
marily   forbidden.     But    neither   were   they   en- 


356  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

joined,  and  everything  was  done  to  regulate  and 
render  them  as  little  injurious  as  possible.  In 
fact,  the  marriage  laws  were  very  far  in  advance 
of  that  time,  and,  in  certain  respects,  of  any  time 
up  to  the  present. 

The  eighteenth  chapter  of  Leviticus  restricts 
the  possibilities  of  polygamy  within  very  narrow 
limits.  Divorce  was  made  difficult  by  the  neces- 
sity of  a  regular  procedure  —  a  thing  unknown 
in  early  times  in  other  countries,  where  a  man 
might  put  away  his  wife  without  ceremony.69 
In  Israel  he  must  give  her  a  written  bill  (liter- 
ally "a  book")  of  divorcement.70  This  was  a 
very  serious  check  upon  divorce  in  an  age  when 
only  a  learned  class  could  write,  and  when  there- 
fore it  was  nearly  always  necessary  to  resort  to 
some  acknowledged  authority,  who  would  require 
satisfactory  reasons  for  this  step  before  making 
out  the  papers.  A  further  check  was  given  by  the 
law  which  made  divorce  irreparable  —  a  man 
might  not  take  back  his  divorced  wife.71  In  two 
cases,  to  be  presently  mentioned,  the  right  of  di- 
vorce  was  withheld.     It  will  be  observed  that 

69  Even  in  the  Hammurabi  Code  this  was  the  case,  although 
a  man  might  not  put  away  his  wife  portionless  (§§  137-40)  except 
for  cause  (§  141).  In  the  latter  case  investigation  was  required 
(§§  141,  142),  evidently  in  the  interests  of  the  woman's  property 
rights,  not  to  put  any  check  upon  divorce.  I  should  like  to  call 
the  attention  of  our  legislators  to  the  provision  for  truant  husbands 
(§  136). 

70  Deut.  24:  1. 
"Deut.    24:  4. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      357 

they  are  the  very  cases  where  a  man  would  be 
most  likely  to  wish  to  put  away  his  wife,  having 
already  been  unjust  to  her.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  that  in  a  primitive  state  of  society  every 
woman  must  be  married  (for  protection),72  and 
there  is  no  reason,  therefore,  to  suppose  that  a 
motion  for  divorce  would  ever  come  from  the 
woman.  Though  her  husband  were  cruel,  he 
would  be  better  than  no  husband  at  all. 

Infidelity  to  the  marriage  vow  was  punished 
by  the  death  of  both  parties.73  The  seduction  of 
a  concubine  was  an  exception  to  this  law  :  both 
parties  were  to  be  punished,  but  not  by  death. 
Apparently  both  were  to  be  punished  alike.  If 
a  man  dishonored  a  betrothed  girl,  both  were  to 
be  put  to  death,  except  in  the  case  where  the  act 
occurred  in  a  lonely  place;  then  the  girl  had  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt,  and  the  man  only  was  put 
to  death.74  In  case  of  seduction  of  a  girl  who 
was  not  betrothed,  marriage  was  obligatory,  and 
the  man  was  bound  to  pay  a  large  dowry  to  the 
father.     And  this  is  one  of  the  cases  where  no 

73  Unless,  as  the  Hammurabi  Code  and  the  customs  of  many 
peoples  provided,  she  became  a  "  devotee,"  a  condition  unthinkable 
to  the  pure-minded  legislators  of  Israel,  though  not  to  the  pre- 
exilic  practice. 

73  Lev.  20:  10;  Deut.  22:22.  The  Hcmmurabi  Code  provides 
the  death  penalty  for  those  caught  in  flagrante  delictu,  yet  "  if  the 
husband  of  the  woman  would  save  his  wife  or  if  the  king  would  save 
his  male  servant  (he  may)."  The  case  of  a  concubine  is  not  con- 
sidered. 

74  Deut.  22:23-27.  The  Hammurabi  Code  is  more  lenient;  in 
either  case  the  girl  goes   free,  "  the  man  shall  be  put  to  death." 


358         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

divorce   was   allowed.75     The  other  case  where 
divorce  is  forbidden  is  equally  striking: 

If  a  man  take  a  wife,  and  afterward  hate  her,  and 
lay  shameful  things  to  her  charge,  and  bring  an  evil  name 
upon  her,  and  say,  I  took  this  woman,  and  found  her 
not  to  be  a  virgin;  and  it  be  tried,  and  it  be  false;  then 
the  elders  of  that  city  shall  take  that  man  and  scourge 
him;  and  they  shall  amerce  him  in  a  hundred  shekels 
of  silver,  and  give  them  to  the  father  of  the  damsel,  be- 
cause he  hath  brought  an  evil  name  upon  a  virgin  of 
Israel;  and  she  shall  be  his  wife,  whom  he  shall  not  put 
away  all  his  life.16 

Even  in  this  stringent  guarding  of  woman's 
honor  there  is  no  sentimentality.  Such  a  charge, 
if  proved  true,  brought  the  death  penalty  upon 
the  woman. 

The  law  concerning  female  captives  taken  in 
war  is  remarkable  for  its  delicacy  and  the  re- 
straint imposed  upon  the  captor.  We  have  only 
to  call  to  mind  the  treatment  of  women  in  sacked 
towns  almost  to  the  present  day,  the  treatment  of 
women  in  Armenia  in  our  own  day,  to  appre- 
ciate this : 

If  thou  seest  among  the  captives  a  beautiful  woman, 
and  hast  a  desire  for  her,  and  wouldst  take  her  to  thee 

78  Deut.  22:28,  29;  but  cf.  Ex.  22:16,  17.  The  Hammurabi 
Code  considers  incest  and  the  seduction  by  a  man  of  his  betrothed 
daughter-in-law.  The  penalties  of  the  former  vary  from  death  to 
exile.  In  the  latter  case  the  man  pays  a  fine  to  the  woman,  and 
she  goes  back  to  her  father,  free  to  marry  "  the  man  of  her 
choice." 

T*  Deut.  22:  13—19.  The  summaries  of  the  law  are  from 
Scriptures  Hebrew  and  Christian  by  E.  T.  Bartlett  and  John  P. 
Peters. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      359 

to  wife,  thou  shalt  bring  her  to  thine  house;  and  she 
shall  shave  her  head,  and  pare  her  nails,  and  put  off  from 
her  the  raiment  of  her  captivity  [that  is,  she  shall  have 
the  privilege  of  mourning]  and  dwell  in  thy  house,  and 
bewail  her  father  and  mother  a  full  month.  Afterward, 
thou  shalt  marry  her,  and  she  shall  be  thy  wife.  And  if 
thou  find  no  delight  in  her,  then  thou  shalt  let  her  go 
free.  Thou  shalt  not  sell  her  for  money,  thou  shalt  not 
deal  with  her  as  a  chattel,  because  thou  hast  humbled 
her.77 

In  case  of  a  husband's  jealousy  the  appeal  to 
the  ordeal  was  allowed  (the  bitter  water  that 
causeth  the  curse),  and  this  is  the  only  instance 
of  ordeal  permitted  by  the  Mosaic  legislation.78 
It  is  not  many  hundred  years  since  all  sorts  of 
questions  —  of  inheritance,  of  chastity,  of  ortho- 
doxy, accusations  of  witchcraft,  etc. —  were  sub- 
mitted to  the  ordeal,  so  that  the  Mosaic  legislation 
is  advanced  indeed.  It  is  evident  that  this  one 
appeal  to  ordeal  is  permitted  that  it  may  be  strict- 
ly regulated,  and  not  permitted  in  any  other  case, 
thus  counteracting  the  natural  tendency  of  men 
to  seek  this  method  of  arriving  at  a  decision.79 

From  this  slight  survey  it  seems  evident  that 
the  Mosaic  code  is  in  advance  of  any  system  of 
laws  now   in   force  so   far  as  consideration   for 

77  Deut.    21 :  10-14. 

78  Num.  5:12-28.  The  ordeal  is  permitted  by  the  Hammurabi 
Code  in  a  like  case,  and  also  in  the  case  of  sorcery.  In  this  case 
the  ordeal  is  that  applied  to  witches  in  more  modern  times,  "  sink 
or  swim." 

78  A  method  still  more  frequently  practiced  than  is  generally 
realized;  for  instance,  in  the  tossing  up  of  a  cent,  choosing  right 
or   left   hand,    etc. 


360  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

women  is  concerned,  as  the  struggle  good  women 
are  making  in  many  states  of  our  Union  today 
to  get  the  "  age  of  consent  "  raised  above  sixteen 
years,  fourteen,  even  ten  years,  will  suffice 
to  indicate.  The  whole  spirit  of  the  Mosaic  laws 
is  the  protection  of  the  weaker  against  the  strong- 
er, of  the  girl  against  her  betrayer,  the  debtor 
against  his  creditor,  the  oppressed  against  the 
oppressor.  No  other  body  of  laws  equals  this 
code  in  delicate  thoughtfulness  and  beneficent  hu- 
maneness.80 

VII 

The  share  that  animals  are  to  have  in  the  per- 
fect state  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  is  reflected 
from  the  Torah,  which  includes  them  in  the  pro- 
tection of  the  weak  against  the  strong.  The 
fourth  commandment  provides  for  the  rest  of 
cattle  as  well  as  servants.  The  strayed  beast  was 
to  be  led  home  to  its  master,  the  overladen  beast 
to  be  relieved  by  anyone  who  came  along.81  It 
was  forbidden  to  take  the  mother-bird  from  the 
nest  (perhaps  in  the  case  of  taking  birds  for  sac- 
rifice), for  in  that  case  the  young  would  suffer.82 
Better  to  take  the  young  and  leave  the  mother  to 
raise  another  brood.  The  ox  that  trode  the  corn 
was  not  to  be  muzzled,  but  permitted  to  eat  as  he 

80  This    may    still    be   said,    notwithstanding    the    remarkable   jus- 
tice  of  many  provisions   of  the   Hammurabi    Code. 

81  Ex.   23:4,   5;   Deut.   22:1-4. 
83  Deut.   22 :  6,  7. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      361 

chose.83  The  self-grown  fruits  of  the  sabbatical 
year  were  not  only  for  the  poor ;  "  What  they 
leave  the  beasts  of  the  field  shall  eat."  84  Entirely 
in  the  spirit  of  a  most  refined  humanity  was  the 
prohibition  to  slaughter  a  ewe  and  her  lamb  on 
the  same  day,  or  to  cook  a  kid  in  its  mother's 
milk.85  These  laws,  which  appear  to  be  purely 
sentimental,  show  that  sentiment  also  has  its  place 
in  the  education  of  a  nation. 

The  love  for  nature  shown  in  the  Torah  very 
strikingly  prefigures  the  Utopia  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  It  is  evident  that  the  law-giver  felt 
in  his  deepest  heart  that  the  order  of  nature  is  an 
expression  of  the  mind  of  God.  The  divine 
right  of  the  soil  to  its  period  of  rest  is  shown  in 
the  institution  of  the  sabbatical  and  jubilee  years. 
There  was  more  than  a  prudential  motive  in  this 
law,  more  than  the  mere  attempt  to  prevent  the 
exhaustion  of  the  soil.  An  ethical  motive  lay  at 
the  bottom  of  it*  the  feeling  that  nature  has  a 
right  to  be  set  free  from  service  and  left  to  her- 
self —  to  enjoy  her  sabbaths.  In  the  later  years, 
when  people  began  to  make  haste  to  be  rich, 
the  sabbatic  and  jubilee  laws  were  not  kept,86  and 
when  the  captivity  came  it  was  in  part,  we  are 

83  Deut.  25:  4. 

81  Ex.    23:11.     Cf.    the    game    laws   of   some   civilized   countries 
today. 

*B  Ex.  23:  19. 

88  Many  scholars  question  if  they  ever   were  kept. 


362  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

told,  that  the  land  might  at  last  have  her  rights 
and  enjoy  her  sabbaths. 

VIII 

The  spirit  of  humanity  is  nowhere  more  ob- 
vious than  in  the  criminal  laws  of  the  Hebrews. 
I  am  aware  that  the  contrary  opinion  prevails. 
We  must  bear  in  mind  the  object  of  these  laws : 
"  To  form  a  horde  of  newly  enfranchised  slaves 
into  habits  of  perfect  obedience,  based  on  ethical 
and  religious  grounds."  We  must  remember 
that  much  more  severe  regulations  are  required 
for  waifs  and  child  criminals  in  our  refuges  and 
reformatories  than  for  the  children  in  a  Christian 
family.  No  doubt  there  is  a  great  degree  of 
rigor  in  the  Torah,  but  rigor  is  not  a  sign  of 
barbarism,  but  of  civilization.  Intelligent  par- 
ents are  much  more  strict  than  ignorant  parents. 
Barbarism  is  lax,  and  severity  is  not  necessarily 
cruel.  We  must  remember,  too,  that  the  entire 
body  of  laws  is  based  on  the  covenant  idea. 

In  the  Mosaic  code  there  are  five  classes  of 
crime  punishable  with  death : 87  blasphemy,88 
idolatry,  including  witchcraft,89  cursing  parents 
or   incorrigible   disobedience,90    murder,91    adul- 

87  In  all  eighteen  capital  crimes  are  named  in  the  various 
codes,  but  they  may  all  be  reduced  under  these  five  heads.  Pro- 
fessor Kent  makes  seven. 

88  Lev.  24:  16. 

69  Lev.  20:27;  Deut.   17:3-6. 

*°  Lev.  20 :  9. 

"  Lev.    24:17;    Num.    35:30.   3*« 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      363 

tery.92  In  England  two  hundred  years  ago  there 
were  148  crimes  which  incurred  the  death  pen- 
alty. Of  the  five  crimes  punishable  by  death 
under  the  Torah,  the  first  two,  blasphemy  and 
idolatry,  were  high  treason  in  view  of  the  cove- 
nant—  the  children  of  Israel's  free  election  of 
God  to  be  their  ruler.  It  must  be  noted,  how- 
ever, that  only  the  overt  act  of  blasphemy,  idol- 
atry, etc.,  was  punished.  There  was  no  such 
thing  as  suffering  for  opinion,  no  arrest  on  sus- 
picion, no  heresy  trials. 

The  third  category  of  capital  crime  (cursing 
parents  or  incorrigible  disobedience)  appears  to 
have  come  under  the  same  head  —  treason  — 
since  parents  represent  God,  and  rule  by  author- 
ity delegated  by  him.  The  laws  concerning  re- 
spect to  parents  were  exceedingly  strict.  "  He 
that  smiteth  father  or  mother  shall  surely  be  put 
to  death  " —  a  simple  blow.93  Parricide  appears 
to  have  been  unthinkable.  To  strike  a  parent 
was  as  bad  as  to  kill  another  person.  He  that 
set  light  by  his  father  or  his  mother  was  to  be 
accursed.94 

Of  the  fourth  and  fifth  capital  crimes,  murder 
has  always  been  punishable  by  death ;  adultery 
never  has  been  in  any  state  but  Palestine,  though 

92  Lev.   20:  10. 

83  Ex.  21:  15.  In  the  Hammurabi  Code  the  penalty  is  cutting 
off   the   hands. 

**  Deut.    27:  16. 


364         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

popular  opinion  has  never  been  severe  upon  the 
injured  husband  who  avenged  himself.  In  this 
country  there  are  now,  as  in  early  Israel,  five 
capital  crimes;  but  a  number  of  crimes  are  pun- 
ished with  life-imprisonment,  which  is  virtually 
death.  Among  the  Israelites  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  imprisonment,  with  all  its  associate  evils 
of  expense  to  the  law-abiding  community,  crim- 
inal contact,  and  idleness,  and  with  its  long  train 
of  "  problems  of  penology."  Nor  were  there  any 
cruel  punishments;  torture  was  absolutely  un- 
known ;  exile,  banishment,  confiscation,  the  rack, 
wheel,  knout,  burying  alive,  dark  cells,  pillory, 
stocks  —  all  of  them  Christian  punishments  — 
had  no  place  in  Hebrew  legislation. 

As  to  penalties,  only  four  were  known  to 
Hebrew  criminal  law :  forty  stripes  save  one,95 
like  for  like,96  restitution  with  compensation,97 
death.98  Stoning,  the  usual  form  of  the  death 
penalty,  does  indeed  appear  to  be  more  cruel  than 
hanging,  beheading,  or  shooting,  but  it  is  tender 
mercy  to  some  forms  of  the  death  penalty  prac- 
ticed in  England  less  than  two  centuries  ago. 

The  law  of  like   for  like  —  the  jus  talionis, 

85  Deut.  25:  3. 

••Ex.  21:23-25;  Deut.  19:21.  The  Mosaic  code  appears  to 
have  been  much    influenced  in   this  respect  by   that   of   Hammurabi. 

97  Ex.  22:  1-4.  This  also  is  prominent  in  the  Hammurabi 
Code. 

88  Deut.  21:21;  Num.   15:35. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY       365 

"  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand, 
foot  for  foot,  burning  for  burning,  stripe  for 
stripe  " —  seems  to  speak  of  a  barbarous  age ; 
perhaps  it  does.  Its  influence  certainly  meets  that 
demand  for  literal  justice  which  expresses  itself 
in  lynch  law,  and  it  is  without  question  incom- 
parably better  from  every  point  of  view  than 
lynch  law." 

Laws  of  retaliation  are  found  in  the  best  codes 
of  all  ancient  peoples  —  those  of  Rhadamanthus, 
Solon,  of  the  Ten  Tables,  and  especially  in  the 
Code  of  Hammurabi,  which  evidently  had  much 
influence  upon  the  Mosaic  legislation,  especially 
the  earlier  codes.  They  were  assuredly  needed  in 
that  day  to  prevent  men  taking  the  law  into  their 
own  hands.  It  was,  indeed,  expressly  command- 
ed that  men  should  not  take  vengeance,  nor  even 
so  much  as  bear  a  grudge  against  their  neigh- 
bor.100 There  is  certainly  poetic  justice  in  that 
part  of  this  law  which  requires  that  the  punish- 
ment shall  fall  upon  a  false  witness  which  he 
thought  to  have  done  unto  his  brother.101 

No  other  ancient  law  made  such  provision  for 
the  protection  of  the  accused.  Two  witnesses  at 
least  must  agree,  and  perjury  was  severely  pun- 

••  I  have  been  told  by  some  mothers  that  there  is  one  fault 
of  which  "like  for  like"  appears  to  be  the  only  cure;  that  is, 
the  childish  fault  of  biting.  A  biting  child  can  be  cured  only  by 
being   bitten. 

100  Lev.   19:  18. 

101  Deut.    19:  16—19;    so  the   Hammurabi   Code. 


366         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

ished.102  Yet  here  is  no  sentimentality.  No  law 
makes  such  provision  for  the  detection  of  crime. 
Under  no  circumstances  did  murder  go  unpun- 
ished. When  the  criminal  was  not  known,  so 
large  a  number  of  the  people  were  held  responsible 
that  it  was  everybody's  interest  to  find  the  cul- 
prit.103 

In  general,  a  high  sense  of  honor  was  culti- 
vated by  the  fact  that  crimes  which  might  be 
known  only  to  God  required  for  their  forgiveness 
by  him  open  confession  and  the  offering  of  a 
costly  sacrifice.104  Many  sins  thus  confessed  in- 
volved heavy  pecuniary  loss,  but  they  were  con- 
fessed, and  the  loss  was  borne.  The  value  of  an 
enlightened  public  opinion  in  such  matters  was 
almost  inconceivably  great  —  inconceivable  at 
least  by  us  who  live  under  conditions  in  which 
public  opinion  is  all  the  other  way  —  no  man 
being  required,  and  hardly  being  permitted,  to 
incriminate  himself. 

Property  laws  were  of  a  very  high  order. 
Stolen  goods  were  to  be  restored  fivefold ; 105  if 
the  thief  was  unable  to  make  restitution,  he  was 
to  be  sold  for  the  debt  —  always  regaining  his 
freedom  in  the  sabbatic  year.  Carelessness  in 
leaving  open  uncovered  pits,  or  in  kindling  fires, 
or  in  the  care  of  loaned  or  intrusted  property, 

102  Num.  35:30;  Deut.  17:6,  16,  19.  The  Hammurabi  Code 
inflicts  death  in  case  of  capital  crime. 

103  Deut.   21:1-9.  IM  Num.    5:5-8.  105  Ex.  22:1,  3. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      367 

was  strictly  but  fairly  dealt  with.106  The  most 
beneficent  of  all  institutions,  far  wiser  than  our 
bankrupt  laws,  was  the  release  of  the  jubilee 
year,107  when  debts,  having  been  paid  so  far  as 
possible  by  the  enforced  service  of  the  debtor, 
were  finally  wiped  out,  slavery  ceased,  property 
reverted  to  its  original  owner. 

IX 

I  have  not  space  so  much  as  to  touch  upon  the 
sanitary  laws,  the  admirable  character  of  which 
is  daily  vouched  for  by  the  longevity  and  good 
health  of  the  Hebrew  people  even  under  the  most 
adverse  circumstances.  Nor  is  there  space  for 
more  than  a  mere  allusion  to  the  military  statutes, 
which  are  very  interesting.  They  are  in  a  very 
true  sense  the  goal  to  which  modern  theory  is 
constantly  tending,  and  a  whole  heaven  in  ad- 
vance of  modern  practice.  No  standing  army 
was  kept;  all  the  people  were  soldiers  when  the 
time  came,  an  ideal  perhaps  more  nearly  reached 
by  America  than  by  any  other  nation.  The  list 
of  exemptions  from  military  duty  are  very  sig- 
nificant, showing  a  high  degree  of  refined  con- 
sideration.108 A  man  who  had  built,  but  had 
not  yet  entered,  a  new  house ;  who  had  planted  a 
vineyard,  but  not  eaten  of  it;  or  who  was 
betrothed  or  newly  married,  was  exempt.     Still 

»°«Ex.  22:36,  7-15.        107Lev.  25:8-13.         lu8Deut.  20:5-9- 


368         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

more  important  was  the  exemption  of  all  who 
were  feeble  and  faint-hearted.  The  demoralizing 
effect  of  such  soldiers  was  very  clearly  recognized. 
A  very  important  and  very  modern  feature  of 
Hebrew  warfare  is  that  negotiations  were  always 
tried  before  war  was  declared.  Jephthah  ad- 
dressed a  long  and  earnest  remonstrance  to  the 
king  of  Amnion  before  accepting  his  challenge 
to  war,109  and  this  was  precisely  in  accordance 
with  the  law.  "  When  thou  drawest  nigh  unto 
a  city  to  fight  against  it,  then  proclaim  peace  unto 
it."  n0  Moses  tried  negotiations  with  the  king 
of  Edom,111  and  when  these  failed,  he  still  de- 
clined to  offer  him  battle,  though  when  nesrotia- 
tions  afterward  failed  with  the  king  of  the  Am- 
monites he  attacked  and  subdued  him.  Evidently 
both  principle  and  practice  were  in  this  respect 
in  the  direct  line  of  preparation  for  the  messianic 
kingdom  —  for  the  arbitration  for  which  all  pub- 
lic-spirited people  are  working  now. 

X 

A  few  words  as  to  the  constitution  of  the  He- 
brew state  —  a  subject  which  would  reward  de- 
tailed study.  The  government  was,  as  has  been 
said,  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  purest  form  of 
free  republican  government.  It  was  neither  pa- 
triarchal nor  despotic.     We  must  not  allow  our- 

,09Judg.   ii  :  12-28.        »»  Dent.   20:  10.         '»  Num.  20:  r4. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY      369 

selves  to  be  misled  by  Josephus'  term  "  theoc- 
racy " —  though  it  is  in  a  measure  correct.  God 
was  the  Sovereign  of  the  state,  but  he  was  a 
Sovereign  freely  elected  by  the  whole  people.112 
One  important  result  of  this  fact  was  that  all 
offenses  were  not  only  offenses  against  law,  but 
sin  against  God.  The  assent  of  the  whole  people 
to  the  covenant  gave  them  a  popular  constitution, 
and  had  a  great  moral  effect,  giving  to  the  law 
the  authority  of  common  consent,  binding  them 
all,  not  only  to  God,  but  to  one  another.  We  are 
told  how  Moses  instituted  the  government  in  re- 
publican form.  "  Take  you,"  he  said  to  the  peo- 
ple, "  wise  men  and  understanding  and  known 
among  your  tribes  and  I  will  make  them  heads 


over  you." 


Thus  we  find  the  judges  (in  a  later  time  the 
king,  who  was  simply  the  judge  of  the  whole 
nation,  not  of  a  tribe  or  group  of  tribes)  chosen 
by  popular  suffrage.  Their  qualifications,114 
"  such  as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating  covetous- 
ness,"  precisely  meet  Jefferson's  test  of  official 
capacity :  "  Is  he  just,  is  he  honest,  is  he  capa- 
ble? "  adding  one  more:    "  Does  he  fear  God?  " 

The  government  was  practically  a  United 
States.  The  tribal  authority  was  great,  though 
subordinate  to  the  central  authority,  the  judge, 
the  king.     At  the  head   of  government,   under 

112  See  ante,  pp.  336L        113  Deut.   1:13.  m  Ex.   18:21. 


3/0  HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Jehovah,  were  the  king  or  the  judge,  the  priests 
and  Levites,  whose  special  political  function  it 
was  to  preserve  the  union  of  the  tribes,  and  guard 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  fundamental  law. 
There  were  two  legislative  assemblies,  an  upper 
and  a  lower  house; 115  there  was  a  complete  sys- 
tem of  courts,  upper  and  lower116 — heads  of 
thousands,  hundreds,  fifties,  and  tens  —  the  sub- 
division of  courts  entirely  doing  away  with  the 
law's  delay.  There  was,  when  occasion  required, 
a  generalissimo,  whether  judge  or  king,  whose 
function  it  was  to  have  charge  of  the  force  di- 
rected against  enemies;117  and,  lastly,  there  was 
the  prophetic  order,  whose  chief  function  was  the 
formation  of  public  opinion.  All  these  offices 
were  elective  except  that  of  the  prophet,  who  was 
called  by  God,  those  of  priests  and  Levites,  which 
were  hereditary,  and  later  the  generalissimo  or 
king  (who,  however,  was  elected  in  the  first 
instance:  Judg.  8:22;  1  Sam.  11:12;  2  Sam. 
5  :  1-3  ;  1  Kings  12  :  20).  They  constituted  a  re- 
markable system  of  checks  and  balances  such  as  it 
is  the  first  necessity  of  every  republican  govern- 
ment to  provide.    The  system  was  a  model  of  pro- 

115 "  The  princes  of  the  tribes"  of  Num.  7:2  passim  and 
"the  elders  of  the  people,"   Ex.    17:  5,  etc.;  cf.  Deut.   27:  1. 

118  Ex.    18:25,   26;    Deut.    17:8-11. 

117  In  later  times  the  king  delegated  this  office  to  another 
(Joab,  etc.),  very  much  as  does  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
who   is   commander-in-chief   of   the   army. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY     371 

vincial,  that  is  tribal,  and  municipal  government. 
All  men  were  politically  equal,  and  all  had  their 
part  in  the  government  by  their  representatives, 
who  met  in  regularly  constituted  assemblies,118 
not  at  stated  times  like  our  government,  but  when- 
ever a  new  law  was  to  be  framed. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  wise  system  of  checks 
and  balances,  I  may  instance  the  organization  of 
the  Levites.  They,  being  the  representatives  of 
knowledge,  the  learned  class,  would  have  been  a 
menace  to  the  state  if  they  had  also  had  property, 
for  the  union  of  property  with  learning  gives 
unlimited  political  power.  But  it  was  specially 
arranged  that  they  should  have  no  property.119 
No  part  of  the  land  was  given  to  them,  they  were 
collected  in  cities,  where,  in  case  of  conspiracy, 
they  could  be  easily  handled.  Not  Lycurgus, 
Solon,  or  Numa  was  able  to  devise  a  system  so 
potent  to  prevent  faction  or  so  admirably  self- 
checking  in  all  its  parts.  The  Hebrew  people 
were  not  learned,  but  they  were  thoroughly  edu- 
cated in  the  laws  and  history  of  their  own  coun- 
try, and  no  doubt  reading  and  writing  were  more 
widely  disseminated  among  them  than  among 
almost  any  people.  The  three  annual  festivals  of 
the  year  were  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  the 

118  Deut.    5:1;    29:2;    31:1. 

119  Num.    18:20,    2i,    24;    Deut.    10:9. 


372         HEBREW  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

tribes   and    trained   them    in    the   arts    of   social 
life.120 

It  is  commonly  said  that  Moses  owed  much  of 
his  legislation  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians, 
in  which  he  had  been  trained ;  but  the  more  we 
learn  of  Egypt  at  that  time,  the  more  we  see 
how    little    it    influenced    the    Hebrews.     Egypt 
never  began  to  be  as  civilized  as  the  Torah.     In 
art  and  science,  indeed,  she  went  far  beyond  the 
Hebrews,  but  the  slaves  who  were  making  brick 
for  Egypt's  treasure  cities  would  not  be  brought 
in  contact  with  art  and  learning.     The  govern- 
ment of  Egypt  was  monarchical,  her  religion  was 
idolatrous,  and  her  civilization  depraved  to  a  de- 
gree never  dreamed  of  in  the  worst  days  of  Greece 
or   Rome.     Not   from   Egypt   did   the   Hebrews 
bring  their  civilization  of  high  principles  and  of 
right  practice  in  the  common  relations  and  cus- 
toms of  life.     Since  the  Hammurabi  Code  was 
discovered,  it  is  said  by  many,  and  with  more  of 
justice,   that  Israel  owes  its  remarkable  legisla- 
tion to  Assyrian  influence.     But  I  think  even  the 
slight  comparison  possible  in  such  a  study  as  this 
shows  that  in  essential  quality  the  Torah  is  as 
far  removed  from  Assyria  as  from  Egypt.     That 
essential  quality  is  inherent,   "  not  in  the  form, 
but  in  the  spirit  and  content  of  the  individual  in- 
stitutions." 121     However  much  the  form  of  the 

120  Ex.  23:  14-17.  121  Kent,  op.  cit.,  p.  5. 


THE  LAW  AND  MODERN  SOCIETY    373 

Torah  may  have  felt  the  influence  of  Assyria  or 
of  any  other  people,  its  sanctions  are  such  as  were 
utterly  unknown  to  them :  "  The  powerful  in- 
fluences which  made  Israel's  laws  a  guide  and 
inspiration  for  all  later  ages  came  from  with- 
in." 122 

From  within?  What  was  there  in  the  heart 
of  Israel  that  set  him  so  immeasurably  apart  from 
other  peoples?  The  question  can  have  but  one 
answer.  The  laws  of  Israel  are  what  they  are, 
they  are  ethically  so  far  above  those  of  Egypt 
and  Assyria,  those  by  which  modern  society  is 
governed,  because  of  the  indwelling  presence  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  heart  of  Israel.  If  in 
any  part  of  the  Old  Testament  the  diary  of  the 
converse  of  heaven  with  earth  is  to  be  found,  it 
is  surely  —  I  had  almost  said  supremely  —  to  be 
found  in  the  Torah. 

The  laws  of  Israel  came  not  from  Egypt,  nor 
from  Babylon,  nor  from  any  of  the  nations  with 
which  Israel  was  brought  in  contact.  It  is  im- 
possible to  study  them  carefully,  to  compare  them 
with  the  laws  and  customs  by  which  our  modern 
society  is  governed,  and  not  to  feel  convinced 
that  they  came  direct  from  God. 

122  Ibid. 


INDEX 


Abraham:  different  from  other 
Chaldaeans,  5;  his  story  pure 
epic,    J 04. 

Accuracy:  aided  by  poetic 
form,  31;  folklore  forms  an 
aid  to,  40. 

Accused:  protection  of,  in 
Torah,    365. 

Acrostic    poems,    90. 

Adad-Nirari  III:  aggressive 
movements  of,  137;  his  in- 
scription explains  Old  Testa- 
ment   history,    140. 

Agnosticism:  no  place  for  in 
Hebrew  Wisdom,  218;  near- 
est  approach   to,   227. 

Ahab:  ally  of  Benhadad  at 
Karkar,  121;  breaks  truce 
with,   123. 

Ahaziah:  succeeds  Ahab,  123; 
"  two  years "  of  narrative 
parts    of    years,    124. 

Alien  resident  ("  stranger  ")  : 
his  rights,  345;  limitations, 
346. 

Allegorical  interpretation,  or 
literary  study  of  Old  Testa- 
ment necessary  alternatives,  9. 

Animals:  protected  by  Torah, 
360. 

Apek:    battle   of,    120. 

Appendix:  not  practicable  when 
Old  Testament  was  written, 
20. 

Arbitration:  foreshadowed  in 
prophecy,  315;  Hague  Con- 
vention and  Isaiah's  prophecy, 
ibid. 

Arch:  figure  in  Hebrew  liter- 
ature, 80;  explains  construc- 
tion   of    language,    ibid. 

Army:  standing,  not  kept  in 
Israel,  367;  analogy  with 
United   States,  ibid. 


Assyria:  beginning  of  world- 
empire  of,  120;  completes 
conquest  of   Syria,    142. 

Astrology:  no  part  of  Hebrew 
religion,   62. 

Arabian  Nights:  their  impor- 
tance in  interpreting  Old 
Testament,    37. 

Authorized  Version:  finest  liter- 
ature in  English  language, 
22;  poetical  passages  not  rec- 
ognized as  such,   30. 

Baal  and  Jehovah:  the  testing 
on    Carmel,    122. 

Baalam  story:  a  prose  and 
verse  epic,  106;  a  literary 
gem,  ibid.;  its  construction 
that  of  folklore,  107;  story 
unchanged  by  writer,  ibid. ; 
character  of  Balaam,   108. 

Ballad  lore:  underlies  much  of 
Genesis,  31,  33;  poetic  form 
an  aid  to  accuracy,  31,   34- 

Benhadad  II  of  Syria:  alliance 
with  Ahab,  121;  murdered  by 
Hazael,    128. 

Bible:     its     influence    on     style, 

23- 

Bildad:  his  lack  of  sympathy, 
27s;  bitter  taunts  of  Job,  282; 
platitudes  as  to  God's  great- 
ness,   287. 

Black  Obelisk:  and  Elisha 
story,  116;  and  Shalmaneser, 
117;  inscription  on,  119;  com- 
pared with  Moabite  Stone, 
126;  other  inscriptions  and 
Old  Testament  story  fix  dates 
for  Israel,   126,   127. 

Bondman:  status  in  Israel,  340; 
rights,    342;    injuries    to,    343. 

Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah, 
33- 

Bovary,    Madame:    striking    les- 


375 


376 


INDEX 


son  in  sexual  morality^  209; 
properly  condemned  by  French 
authorities,  ibid. 

Canticles:  its  literary  character, 
158;  various  opinions  con- 
cerning, 159;  foundation  of 
fact  not  important,  ibid.;  its 
ideal  of  love  important,  ibid., 
mystical  significance  not  a  lit- 
erary question,  ibid.;  its  re- 
frains, 162;  characters  in, 
163;  story  outline,  i63ff. ; 
analysis,  163-81;  view  justi- 
fied,   182. 

Ceremonial  laws:  adapted  to 
conditions,  331;  compared 
with  those  of  contemporary 
nations,  332,  ethical  impor- 
tance  of,    ibid. 

Certainty,  spiritual:  sought  in 
Job,    256;    found,    296. 

Chapter  and  verse  divisions  of 
Old    Testament    faulty,    221. 

Chief  good  in  God  himself,  254- 

Children:   rights  of,  348. 

Child  spirit:  cardinal  principle 
of  Christ's  kingdom,  28;  per- 
vades Old  Testament,  28;  of 
Israel,   49. 

Chronology:  not  observed  in 
Elisha's  story,  113;  order  of 
story  important,  114.  M3! 
anointing  of  Hazael,  127; 
Shunamite,  132;  Naaman, 
138. 

Codes  of  Torah:  book  of  Cove- 
nant, 337;  Little  Book  ,  of, 
ibid.;  Holiness,  338;  various 
others,   338,   339- 

Constitution  of  Hebrew  state, 
368;  God  its  elected  Sover- 
eign, 369;  Judge  or  king 
chosen  by  popular  suffrage, 
ibid.:  tribal  authority,  ibid.; 
two  legislative  assemblies,  370; 
courts,  370;  generalissimo, 
ibid.;  checks  and  balances,  371. 

Conduct:  tested  by  high  stand- 
ard in   Froverbs,  220. 

Corruption,  literary:  guarded 
against    by    folklore,    41. 

Cosmic  idea:  Israel's  conscious- 
ness of,  found  first  in  Gene- 
sis, 301;  progressive  through- 
out Old  Testament,  302. 

Couplet  proverbs:  folklore  work- 
eel  over,  224. 


Covenant:  Book  of  a  Mosaic 
code,  337;  Little  Book  of, 
ibid. 

Creation:  myth,  52;  story  in 
Genesis,  chap.  1 ;  is  it  mys- 
tical? 52;  is  it  Chaldaean 
folklore?  $2;  compared  with 
Assyro  -  Babylonian  creation- 
tablets,  53IT. ;  likeness  and  un- 
likeness,  54;  neither  myth  nor 
science,  54;  essential  differ- 
ences, 55;  epic  poetry,  56; 
differs  in  spirit  from  tablets, 
57- 

Creditor:  not  specially  safe- 
guarded   by    Mosaic   law,    353. 

Crime:  its  punishment  in  Torah, 
of  four  kinds,  death,  362; 
the   others,    364. 

Criminal  laws  of  Torah:  mar- 
velously   humane,    362. 

Culture:  importance  to  scientific 
study  of  Old  Testament,  vi. 

Curse:  significance  of  word  in 
Job,  267  note. 

Dance:    accompanied   poetry,    68. 

David:  his  story  connecting  link 
between  epic  and  history,  105; 
partly  romantic,  ibid. ;  and 
Michal,  150;  the  Hebrew 
Robin  Hood  and  his  Maid 
Marian,    157. 

Day:  an  objective  reality  to  the 
Hebrew,    269. 

Death  penalty:  inflicted  for  five 
classes    of    crime,    362. 

Debt:  in  Mosaic  code,  341;  its 
treatment,    341. 

Debtor:  laws  made  for  his 
protection,    353. 

Deification  of  human  being: 
common  in  myth,  never  in 
Old  Testament,  58;  Enoch  an 
example,    59. 

Deutero-Isaiah:  teaches  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  suffering  and 
obedient    servant,    326. 

Diligence:  its  economic  impor- 
tance,   230. 

Doxologies   in    Psalter,    90. 

Dirge:  favorite  form  of  Hebrew 
poetry,  69;  book  of,  probably 
lost,  ibid. ;  metre  recognizable, 
70;  nature  among  Semitic 
people,   ibid. 


INDEX 


377 


Divorce:  allowed,  not  enjoined, 
355;  made  difficult,  35°;  ir- 
reparable, 356;  in  two  cases 
forbidden,    357,    358. 

Domestic  life:  revealed  by 
Proverbs,    232. 

Drama,  Hebrew,  160;  analogy 
with  Wagner  opera,  ibid.; 
dramatic  instinct  of  Hebrews, 
160;  differs  from  English  and 
Greek  drama,  ibid.;  disregards 
unity    and    sequence,    161. 

Dramatic  passages,  many,  71. 

Dragon:  as  Sun-myth,  63,  269 
note. 

Dynasty:  idea  foreign  to  David, 
88. 

Ecclesiastes:  analysis  of  242, 
244,  245,  247,  248,  250,  251, 
252,  253,  254;  reflects  on  life 
as  a  whole,  215;  authorship 
of,  236;  immediate  cause  of, 
237;  charm  of  book,  238; 
supposed  incoherence  of,  ibid.; 
relative  date  of,  238,  note; 
difficult  of  analysis,  238,  note; 
undervalued  by  Jews,  239; 
compared  with  Ecclesiasticus, 
ibid.;  no  reference  to,  in  New 
Testament,  240;  literary 

structure  important,  ibid.;  a 
search  for  the  chief  good, 
ibid.;  not  by  methods  of  phi- 
losophy or  logic,  241;  sum- 
marized in  epilogue,  255; 
theoretical    work,    256. 

Economy:    true    and    false,    23 r. 

Editing:    early    attempt    at,    226. 

Edom:    revolt    of,    129. 

Egypt:  did  its  legislation  influ- 
ence the  Torah?   372. 

Elihu:  appears  in  Job,  291;  his 
character  and  apology,  ibid.; 
offers  himself  as  arbitrator 
between  God  and  Job,  291 ; 
his  argument  broken  off  by 
storm,    292. 

Elijah:  his  story  genuine  folk- 
lore, 41;  why,  ibid.;  his  usual 
retreat  Carmel,  122;  de- 
nounces Ahab,  123;  letter  to 
Ahaziah,  124;  letter  to  Joram 
of  Judah,  125;  his  translation, 
ibid.;  probable  date  of,   126. 

Elkanah:  his  love  for  his  wife, 
147. 

Eliphaz:      his     view      that     God 


never  forsakes  righteous,  271; 
counsel  from  expediency,  272; 
openly  rebukes  Job,  282;  ar- 
gument  from  expediency,  ibid. 

Hhslia:  his  story  not  chrono- 
logical, 113;  based  on  folk- 
lore, 114;  light  on  story  from 
monuments,  115;  and  Gehazi, 
119;  his  call,  121;  length  of 
his  service,  121;  early  prepa- 
ration, 121,  122;  lived  with 
Elijah  on  Carmel,  122;  re- 
ceives prophetic  gift,  125; 
intense  patriotism,  126;  value 
of  border  experience,  127; 
distrusts  Joram  of  Judah,  127; 
goes  to  Damascus,  127;  sends 
messenger  to  anoint  king, 
129;  relations  with  kings  of 
Israel,  130;  hope  in  Jehosha- 
phat,  ibid.;  interest  in  extir- 
pation of  Baal-worship,  130; 
friendship  with  Shunamite 
family,  132;  generosity  with 
enemies,  135;  lives  in  Sa- 
maria, 140;  receives  visit 
from  Joash,  141;  connection 
with  world-movements,  143; 
result  of  his  service,  143;  his 
character,  ibid. 

Enlightenment,  divine:  central 
fact  of   Hebrew  Utopia,  306. 

Epic:  definition,  14;  importance 
of  method  in  Old  Testament 
history,  15;  its  history  one, 
94;  two  kinds  of,  95;  Old 
Testament  epic  not  a  poem, 
99;  molded  Hebrew  national 
character,  96;  prophetic  allu- 
sions to,  98;  how  differs  from 
other  epics,  99;  distinguishing 
characteristic  of  Hebrew  he- 
roes, tot;  message  of,  ibid.; 
one  prose  and  verse  epic,  106; 
national  ideal  shown  in  its 
poems,  109;  value  of  recog- 
nizing Old  Testament  epic, 
1 12. 

Epigrams:    in    Proverbs,    225. 

Eponym  calendar,    117. 

Experience:  Koheleth's  search 
for    chief    good    through,    244. 

Ezekiel:  his  Utopia  the  contin- 
ual presence  of  God,  323; 
metamorphosis  of  natural 
world,    324. 

Fable:  in  Old  Testament,  44; 
Jotham's,   45. 


378 


INDEX 


Fact:  of  minor  importance  than 
religious    significance,     n,    39- 

Family  relationships,  232;  sa- 
credness  of,  fostered  by 
Torah,    348. 

Fatalism:  not  a  Hebrew  char- 
acteristic, 248;  Koheleth  nears 
it,    251. 

Fearlessness  of  Old  Testament 
writers,    51. 

Festivals:  a  bond  of  sympathy 
between   classes,    371. 

Figurative  statements  legitimate 
in   poetry,   36. 

Folklore:  presence  of,  in  Old 
Testament,  28;  product  of 
memory  and  imagination,  29; 
much  Old  Testament  narrative 
folklore,  37f.;  mold  of  many 
Old  Testament  stories,  40; 
Balaam,  Samson,  ibid. ;  its 
forms  a  s-'eguard  against  lit- 
erary corruption,  41;  story 
of  Elijah,  42;  its  importance 
in,  44;  its  protean  forms  in 
Old  Testament,  44;  value  as 
a  medium  of  high  truth,  57. 
Folk-song:  in  Proverbs,  226. 
Footnote:  impracticable  in  an- 
cient MSS.,  19;  illustrated  by 
Naaman  story,  ibid. 
Forgiveness    of    God    boundless, 

192. 
Fugitive     slaves:     their     status, 
343- 

Gehazi:  Elisha's  servant,  156- 
Gladness:  justified  by  God's  ex- 
istence, 245;  because  he  is 
master  of  law,  246;  the  gift 
of  God,  247,  248;  found  in 
trust  in  God,  249;  based  on 
sweetness  of  life,  252;  and 
on  judgment  of  God,  ibid. 
God:  Earliest  Hebrew  idea  of 
moral,  3;  how  different  from 
that  of  other  peoples,  4;  of 
Hebrews      supreme      over      all 

fods,  28;  nothing  mythical  in 
[ebrew  idea  of,  60;  in  all 
acts  of  Israel,  216;  because 
the  foundation  of  all  things, 
217;  his  government  just,  229; 
his  absolute  sovereignty,  230; 
problem  of  his  character  in 
Job,    259;    the   problem   of   hu- 


manity, 260;  his  conduct  chief 
interest  of  author  of  Job, 
268;  must  be  just,  since  he 
knows  all,  279;  the  Judge  of 
the  universe,  286;  appeals  to 
Job  by  revealing  himself,  293; 
irony  of  his  appeal,  ibid; 
the  mystery  of  his  govern- 
ment inexplicable  to  man, 
294;  hence  also  his  charac- 
ter, 295 ;  appeals  for  alliance 
of  Job,   295. 

Goddess:  no  Hebrew  word  for, 
61    and   note. 

Goethe:  his  view  of  Bible 
study,    24. 

Gomer:  wife  of  Hosea,  189;  a 
type   of    Israel,    i93ff. 

Good:  ultimately  triumphant, 
235. 

Goodness:  what  certainty  of, 
259. 

Government  of  Israel  practically 
a   United    States,    369. 

Hammurabi  Code:  compared 
with  Torah,  328-373  passim; 
influence    upon,    372. 

Harmonizing  Genesis,  chap.  1, 
and  science   gratuitous,   56. 

Hazael:  throws  predatory  troops 
into  Gilead,  128;  raids  Sa- 
maria, 133;  consequent  pov- 
erty of  Israel,  134;  plots  frus- 
trated  by    Elisha,    135. 

Heathen  nations:  have  part  in 
Hebrew   Utopia,   313. 

Hebrew  ideas  of  God:  .often 
primitive,  never  superstitious, 
60,   no  pantheism   in,  61. 

Hebrew  MSS.:  how  written,  72; 
their  limitations,   17,   19. 

Hebrew  people:  childlike  char- 
acter of,  26;  unscientific  at- 
titude of,  27;  an  inspired 
people,  218;  degree  of  learn- 
ing of,   371. 

Hebrew  poetry:  difference  be- 
tween, and  that  of  other  peo- 
ples, 66;  always  religious, 
though  not  always  Christian.. 
ibid.;  striking  imagery  of,  85. 

Historical  books:  their  true 
character,   13,   14. 

History     and     prophecy:     differ- 


INDEX 


379 


ence  between,  12;  epical  char- 
acter   of    historic    books,    14. 

Hittite  empire:  Syria  founded 
on    its    ruins,    118. 

Honor:  high  sense  of,  cultivated 
by    Torah,    366. 

Hosea:  his  life-tragedy  historic, 
188;  its  prophetic  meaning, 
189;  his  fidelity  to  his  wife, 
I93ff;  brings  him  into  deeper 
sympathy  with  God,  199; 
why  his  life-tragedy  recorded, 
200;  his  prophecy  interprets 
Israel's  history  in  light  of 
God's  love,  201;  glimpse  of 
resurrection  hope,  206  note; 
his  Utopian  dream  the  return 
of  Israel  to  love  and  obedi- 
ence, 31  if. 

Humanity:  shown  in  Torah,  362. 

Human  nature:  considered  by 
Koheleth,   247. 

Humor:  indicative  of  Israel's 
child-spirit,  49;  Samson,  Gid 
eon's  historian,  Micah  story, 
49- 

Imagery  distinguishes  poetry 
from  prose,  85;  very  striking 
in  Hebrew  poetry,  ibid.;  sim- 
plicity of,  ibid.;  drawn  from 
ecclesiastical  things,  86,  and 
arts  of  life,  ibid.;  inanimate 
objects,  86;  personifications, 
87. 

Imagination:  its  place  in  his- 
toric   books,    13. 

Immortality:  early  idea  of,  not 
personal,  213;  no  hope  of  in 
Job's    entreaty,    278. 

Individual:  unimportant  until 
late  period,  212;  and  national, 
distinction  between,  216;  rela- 
tionships and  duties  based 
upon    divine    reality,    ibid. 

Individuality:  strong  sense  of, 
in  Israel,  213;  based  on  per- 
ception of  importance  of  race, 
ibid. 

Infidelity  to  marriage  vow: 
legislation   concerning,   357- 

Inscriptions:  shed  light  on 
Elisha  story,    115. 

Inspiration:  self-evident  in  Old 
Testament,  16;  comes  not 
necessarily  through  medium  of 
words,  ibid.;  of  Old  Testament 


unique,  25;  becomes  more  evi- 
dent through  literary  study. 
6j;  not  what  commonly 
thought  91;  impossible  to 
dogmatize  concerning,  92;  dis- 
covery of  true  character  of, 
great  gain,  93. 

Inspired:  the  Hebrew  people, 
218. 

Interest:  never  to  be  taken  from 
brother-Hebrew,    353. 

Isaac  and  Rebekah:  their  love- 
story  147—9;  idyllic  features 
of  151. 

Isaiah:  statesman  and  patriot, 
his  Utopian  ideal,  312;  con- 
ceived of  world-history  as  a 
whole,  314. 

Israel:  importance  of  his  rela- 
tions with  nations,  5 ;  and 
Syria,  peace  between,  137; 
his  captivity  inevitable  after 
defeat  of  Syria,  143;  exiled, 
not  for  loss,  but  blessing,  309. 

Jacob:  his  story  epical,  104; 
and  Rachel,  their  love-idyll, 
147,  149,  154;  life-long  devo- 
tion,  155. 

Jasher,    Book    of,    33. 

Jehoahaz:  succeeds  Jehu,  136; 
no  zeal  for  religion,  ibid.; 
troubles  of  his  reign,  137;  his 
diminished  army,  139;  un- 
friendly relations  with  Elisha, 
ibid. 

Jehovah:  God  of  Israel,  his 
character,  4;  no  confusion  in 
Hebrew  mind  as  to  his  na- 
ture, 60;  no  myth  about,  ibid.; 
and  Baal,  the  testing  on  Car- 
mel,  122;  his  relation  to 
Israel  typified  by  marriage, 
186;  the  elected  sovereign  of 
Israel,  337. 

Jehu:  anointed  king  of  Israel, 
129;  his  revolt,  ibid.;  rela- 
tions with  Elisha,  ibid.;  state- 
craft, 131;  its  failure,  133; 
his  death,   136. 

Jephthah:  obedience  to  high- 
est   impulse,    147. 

Jeremiah:  his  large  Utopian 
ideal,  314;  character  of  Israel 
in,  320;  the  new  covenant, 
ibid. 

Jeroboam      II:      was      he      the 


38o 


INDEX 


"savior"    of    2    Kings    13:5? 
140. 
Jews:    not   geographically   a   sep- 
arate   people,     2. 
Jezebel:    annihilation   of  her   de- 
scendants save  one,    129. 
Jezreel:     prophetic       significance 

of  name,    190. 
Joash:    succeeds    Jehoahaz,    141; 
visits     Elisha,    ibid.;    fails    to 
persevere    against    Syria,    142; 
consequences,    ibid. 
Job,    book    of:    speculative,    257; 
its    problem,     256     note,     259; 
analysis     of,     263,     269,     270, 
282,   285,   291,   297;  deep   con- 
ception   of    the    universe,    261; 
is    it    historic?    262;    prologue 
in      part      a      folk-tale,      264; 
heavenly    scenes    the    writer's, 
ibid.;     its     deep     significance, 
269. 
Job,    the    man:    begins    with    no 
doubt    of    God's    moral    char- 
acter,      266;       maintains       his 
integrity,    273;    anguish   at   im- 
putation   of    sin,    ibid.;    dread 
of  sin,   274;  remonstrance  with 
God,    ibid.;    awful     fear    that 
God    is    not    just,    275;    asser- 
tion    of     innocence,     276;     be- 
wilderment   about    God,    two.; 
no    arguing    with    such    a    be- 
ing,   277;    longs    for    a    go-be- 
tween    ibid.:     challenges     God 
to    convict    him    of    sin,     280; 
death  a  thought  of  hope,  281; 
appeals    to    the    God    who    is, 
282;    who    is    not    his    enemy, 
283;    recurrence  of   doubt,  284; 
sees    in    God    the    fountain    of 
law,     286;     confident     of     his 
justice,   ibid.;  reasserts  his  in- 
nocence, ibid.,  288;  reviews  his 
case,     289;     asks     for    search- 
ing   test,    290;    unable    to    an- 
swer     God,      294;      recognizes 
alliance      between      God      and 
man,    God    and    the    universe, 
295;     finds     certainty     in     the 
ineffable    vision,    296;    purpose 
of     his     sufferings,     297     and 
note;    his   victory   sealed,    298; 
significance   of   book,   298f. 
Job's     friends:     their     sympathy, 
268;     their    secret    conviction, 
270. 
Job's    wife:      a       misunderstood 
woman,    267    note. 


Joel:  his  world-wide  Utopian 
dream,  324;  universal  inspira- 
tion,   325. 

Joram  of  Israel:  succeeds  Aha- 
ziah,  125;  death  of,  129;  re- 
lations   with    Elisha,    130. 

Joram  of  Judah:  Elijah's  letter 
to,   125. 

Judge:  function  as  generalis- 
simo  370. 

Judges:  pragmatic  purpose  of, 
11;  age  of  a  heroic  time,  98; 
of  Israel,  their  qualifications, 
369. 

Judgment:  importance  in  Eccle- 
siastes,  240;  Hebrew  delight 
in,  246;  an  event  hoped  for, 
253;  prevalence  of  idea  in 
Psalms,   ibid.;  a  joy,   255. 

Karkar:  battle  of,  120;  Ahab 
ally   of   Syria  at,    121. 

Kingdom  of  God:  its  seat  the 
earth,   307;   see   Utopia. 

King:  not  in  place  of  God,  the 
generalissimo,    370. 

Kings:  author  of,  his  search 
for   authorities,    115. 

Koheleth:  Hebrew  name  of  Ec- 
clesiastes,  236;  its  meaning, 
ibid.,  note;  authorship  of, 
236;  not  a  philosophical  pessi- 
mist, 239;  his  true  attitude, 
240;  deep  observation  of  life, 
241 ;  his  pessimism,  248. 
r 

Labor:  search  for  chief  good 
in,  245;  and  capital,  Mosaic 
legislation    on,    339. 

Land-ownership:  principle  of, 
346;  laws  concerning,  347! 
sabbatical  and  jubilee  laws, 
361;  perhaps  never  kept,  ibid., 
note. 

Lamentation,  poetical:  carried 
to    extreme,    70. 

Lamentations:  central  peak  of, 
80,    note. 

Language:  fluid,   16,   107. 

Law:  joyful  discovery  of,  in 
nature,  224,  257;  God  the 
fountain    of,    276. 

Law,  natural:  personified  as 
Wisdom,  214;  joyful  discov- 
ery of,  224;  its  inexorable 
character     discouraging,     243; 


INDEX 


38l 


is  it  stronger  than  God?  ibid.; 
afterward  deemed  cruel,  258; 
its  mystery,    261. 

Laws:    Mosaic,    their    permanent 

value,      329;      all      classes     of 

moral,  ibid. 
Levites:      portion      with      widow, 

fatherless,    and    stranger,    351; 

organization       of,       peculiarly 

wise,    371. 

Life:  in  itself  good  because  God 

in  it,  245. 
Lists   of    names:    their    character 

of    folklore,    38. 

Literary:  achievement  and  Bible 
study,  23;  composition,  diffi- 
culties of,  in  early  days,  i6f. ; 
in  part  mechanical,  16;  im- 
proved methods,  ibid.;  punctu- 
ation, 17;  parenthesis,  19; 
footnote,  ibid.;  appendix,  20; 
parallelism,    21. 

Literary:  study  of  Old  Testa- 
ment: influence  of,  upon  pop- 
ular culture  and  refinement, 
22. 

Literature:  early,  mechanical 
structure  of,  an  aid  to  mem- 
ory, 38;  Old  Testament,  hu- 
man  element   in,    16. 

Lo-ammi:  significance  of  name, 
191. 

Lo-ruhamah:  significance  of 
name,  191;  literal  meaning  of, 
ibid.,   note. 

Love:  relation  between  God  and 
man,    146. 

Love,  divine:  revealed  in  parts 
by  Old  Testament  love-stories, 
145—183;  human  love  a  clue 
to,  184;  inspiration  of  all 
that  is  best  in  humanity,  188; 
unfailing  hope  that  may  be 
based  upon,  192;  revealed 
through  human  experience, 
211. 

Love  relation:  that  between 
God  and  man,  148;  because 
highest  of  all  relations,  183; 
long  training  necessary  for 
apprehension  of  this  truth, 
ibid. 

Love-stories  of  Old  Testament: 
present  time  and  circum- 
stances unsympathetic  with 
their    study,    146;    their    sim- 


plicity and  sanity,  ibid.;  far 
above  their  period,  148;  pure 
idylls,  ibid.;  no  two  alike,  not 
lovers  of  same  type,  149; 
fine  character  presentation, 
150. 
Lowth:  on  prophecy,  39;  dis- 
covered Old  Testament  paral- 
lelism,   72. 

Malachi:  his  Utopia  requires  a 
divine  model,  326;  not  con- 
summation, but  true  begin- 
ning of  things,   327. 

Man:  his  function  in  Hebrew 
state,    354. 

Manuscripts,  Old  Testament: 
how    written,     17. 

Marital  relations:  high  standard 
of,  233. 

Marriage  relation:  originally  one 
of  protection  and  fidelity, 
185;  this  the  covenant  idea, 
ibid. ;  ideal  raised  by  Hosea, 
186;  standing  metaphor  of  re- 
lation between  Jehovah  and 
Israel,  188;  a  symbolic  rela- 
tion, 208;  its  influence  upon 
character    of    Israel,    ibid. 

Messiah:  unrestricted  meaning 
of.    305. 

Messianic  idea:  a  development, 
305- 

Micah:  his  prophecy  of  peace, 
318. 

Military   statutes   of   Torah,   367. 

Mining  operations:  analogy  with 
search    for    wisdom,   289. 

Miracle    at    Bethhoron,    35. 

Mirth:  Search  for  chief  good 
in,    244. 

Moab:  king  of,  tributary  to 
Ahab,  124;  rebels  against  Is- 
rael,  ibid. 

Moabite  Stone:  and  Elisha  story, 
116. 

Tilonotheistic  idea:  first  emerges 
in  epic  story  of  Abraham, 
102. 

Monuments:  light  of,  on  Elisha 
story,    115. 

Morality:  human,  basis  found  in 
relation  to  God,  217;  national, 
tone  of,  raised  by  Proverbs, 
220,  221. 


382 


INDEX 


Mosaic  law:  and  customs  of 
primitive  peoples,  59;  norm 
of  early  laws  of  American 
colonies,  333",  contain  all  es- 
sential principles  of  Hberty, 
334;  intimate  association  of 
religions  with  moral  life,  ibid. ; 
basis,  Israel's  relation  to  Je- 
hovah, ibid.;  not  Jehovah's 
unique  godhead,  335;  in  ad- 
vance of  any  present  system 
of  laws  for  women,  359- 
Mosaic  laws:  all  on  same  plane 
of  obligation,  330;  progres- 
sive development  of,  ibid.; 
dates  of  various  codes,  331 
note;  criminal  laws  a  great 
ethical  advance  on  those  of 
other  nations,  332;  not  irk- 
some, 336;  the  joy  and  pride 
of  Israel,  ibid.;  obedience  a 
matter  of  free  compact,  ibid. 
Mother:      exalted      position      of, 

232. 
Mother-in-law:    dignified    charac- 
ter of  relation,    156. 
Musical    forms:    a    clue    to    He- 
brew literature,   242   and  note. 
Myth:   how  treat   it   if   found  in 
Old       Testament,       51;       sun- 
myths,      54;      moon-myth,      its 
seat,     61;     difference     between 
it     and     poetry,     58;     spiritual 
treatment    of,    in    Old    Testa- 
ment,   62. 
Mythical    animals,    62. 

Naaman:  cured  of  leprosy,  138; 
whose    general,    138. 

Narrative,  Old  Testament:  much 
folklore,   30. 

Nations:  part  of  in  Hebrew 
Utopia,    3!3- 

Natural  law:  dimly  recognized 
in  Proverbs,  215  note;  person- 
ified as  Wisdom,  214;  deemed 
"  vanity  "  by  writer  of  Eccle- 
siastes,  215;  its  inexorable 
character,  243,  248,  is  it 
stronger  than  Hod?  md.; 
search  for  justifying  theory 
of,  245;  does  not  bind  God, 
248. 

Nature:  myths  in  prophetic 
books,  63;  powers  and  proc- 
esses of,  never  deified,  61; 
supremacy  of  Jehovah  over, 
64;   its  part  in  Hebrew  Utopia, 


311;  love  of,  shown  in  Torah, 
361. 
Negotiations:     attempted    before 
war   declared,   368. 

Obadiah:   his  Utopian  ideal,  325. 

Obscurity  of  Old  Testament: 
arises  from  lack  of  knowledge 
of  circumstances,  88;  illus- 
trated by   Ps.    110,   89. 

Ode   of    Deborah,    83. 

Old  Testament:  called  by  Hume 
"  Jehovah's  Diary,"  1 ;  what 
it  records,  ibid.;  its  history  an 
organic  unity,  2;  demands 
more  than  devotional  read- 
ing, 6,  or  figurative  interpre- 
tation, 7;  allegorical  interpre- 
tation a  patristic  principle,  8; 
its  literary  character,  10;  im- 
portance of  literary  study  of, 
ibid.;  historic  books  in  a  sense 
prophetic,    12. 

Old  Testament  study:  its  gen- 
erally ptolemaic  character,  7; 
method  of  figurative  interpre- 
tation one  of  loss,  8;  illumi- 
nated by  comparative  philology 
and  religions,  ibid.;  "  reconcil- 
ing "  statements  a  false  meth- 
od, 9;  no  need  of,  when  lit- 
erary character  is  understood, 
10;  important  for  enjoyment 
of  literature,  24. 
Ordeal:    why    appeal    to    allowed 

in    one   case,    359. 
Oriental     literature:     illustrative 

of  Old   Testament,   38. 
Orphans:    laws    concerning,    349. 

Pain:  its  mystery  first  put  into 
words,   276. 

Palestine:  historic  center  of  the 
world,  3;  essential  factor  Hi 
promise  to  Abraham,  307;  its 
possession  a  means  to  Utopian 
end.  ibid. ;  logically  lost  when 
Israel  unfaithful,  ibid.;  its 
restoration   essential,   308,  31°- 

Pantheism:  absent  from  Hebrew 
idea   of    God,    61. 

Parables:   in    Ecclesiastes,   252. 

Paradise  story:  among  various 
peoples,  58;  significant  only  in 
Genesis,    ibid. 

Parallelism:   a   literary  device  of 


INDEX 


383 


Hebrew  writers,  31 J  cardinal 
factor  in  poetic  construction, 
ibid.;  its  significance,  ibid.; 
most  obvious  mark  of  Hebrew 
poetry,  30;  grew  out  of 
movements  of  dance,  72; 
simplest  form  of  (symmetry 
in  words,  73;  natural  expres- 
sion of  feeling,  ibid.;  no  mo- 
notony in,  ibid;  six  varieties, 
73—77;  the  last  peculiarly 
characteristic  of  Hebrew 
mind,  78;  explains  puzzling 
passages,    78,    79. 

Parenthesis:  not  understood 
when  Old  Testament  was 
written,    19. 

Pauperism :  guarded  against  in 
Torah,    352. 

Peace:  a  feature  of  Hebrew 
Utopia,  315;  Micah's  prophecy, 
317. 

Penalties  of  crime:  four  only, 
362. 

Perfect  state:  see   Utopia. 

Personifications:  explain  appar- 
ent anthropomorphic  concep- 
tion  of   God,   87. 

Pessimism  of  Koheleth  not  that 
of  modern   philosophy,  237. 

Poetic,  more  likely  to  be  true 
than    scientific,    statement,    14. 

Poetry:  important  to  distin- 
guish between  prose  and,  35; 
compared  with  myth,  58;  rev- 
elation of  national  heart,  65; 
first  expression  of  thought, 
ibid.;  earliest  form  of  litera- 
ture, ibid.;  allied  with  reli- 
gion, 66;  beautified  all  aspects 
of  Hebrew  life,  67;  much  of 
Bible  in,  72;  not  discovered 
till  late,  ibid. ;  distinguished 
from   prose   by   imagery,   85. 

Poetry,  Hebrew:  not  like  Euro- 
pean, 65;  generally  unrhymed, 
ibid.;  metre  not  yet  fully 
understood,  69;  much  of  it 
lost,  ibid. ;  important  to  under- 
stand circumstances  of,  87; 
enshrines  genius  of  Hebrew 
people,   92. 

Polygamy:  allowed,  not  sanc- 
tioned, 355;  carefully  regu- 
lated,  356. 

Poor:    relations    of,   presupposed 


in  Torah,  350;  ransom  money 
of,  same  as  that  of  rich,  353. 

Poverty:  never  a  settled  condi- 
tion,  352. 

Prediction:  why  its  failure  fos- 
tered hope,  303. 

Prisoners   of   war,   344. 

Profit:  the  key  to  Ecclesiastes, 
240;  attempt  to  find  it  in  nat- 
ural law,  244;  none  in  cosmic 
order,  245;  found  in  fulfil- 
ment  of    duty,    247. 

Property  laws  in  Torah,  366. 

Prophecy:  its  primary  purpose, 
12;  much  of  it  refers  not  to 
Messiah,  but  to  kingdom  of 
God,    307. 

Prophet:  changed  function  of, 
190;  like  unto  Moses,  original 
significance,   306. 

Prose  folklore:  in  Old  Testa- 
ment, 37;  mechanical  struc- 
ture of,    38. 

Prosperity:  a  token  of  God's 
approval,   231. 

Protean  forms  of  Hebrew  folk- 
lore, 44. 

Proverb:  a  literary  form,  22;  a 
form  of  folklore,  45—6;  not 
to  be  confounded  with  aphor- 
isms and  epigrams  of  Prov- 
erbs, 47. 

Proverbs:  a  book  of  wisdom, 
214;  vague  emergence  of  idea 
of  natural  law,  ibid.;  writers 
saw  life  as  a  series  of  events, 
215;  a  practical  search  for 
good,  216;  takes  ceremonial 
worship  for  granted  without 
mentioning,  218;  recognizes, 
but  does  not  rest  upon,  proph- 
ecy, ibid.;  its  utilitarianism 
exalted  by  reverence,  219;  its 
moral  value,  ibid.;  practical 
value,  ibid.;  high  ethical  stand- 
ard, 220;  analysis,  221,  222; 
joy  of  writer  in  thought  of 
natural  law,  224;  appears 
fragmentary,  228;  no  diffi- 
culty to  oriental  mind,  ibid; 
unity  of,  229;  God  conscious- 
ness always  latent,  ibid. ;  its 
view  of  domestic  life,  232; 
practical,    256. 

Providence:      the     escape      from 


384 


INDEX 


natural  law,  238;  doctrine  of, 
still  held,   258. 

Psalms:   Utopian  ideal  of,   325- 

Psalter:    analysis    of,    90. 

Ptolemaic  character  of  most 
Old   Testament  study,   3- 

Punctuation:  more  modern  than 
Old  Testament,    17- 

Puns:  numerous  in  Old  Testa- 
ment, 5°;  generally,  but  not 
always,  lost  in  translation, 
ibid. 

Quotation  marks:  absence  of, 
in  Old  Testament,  17;  at- 
tempts of  translators  to  make 
good,    18. 

Ramoth  in  Gilead:  siege  of,  129. 
Ransom     money     of     poor     and 

rich    the    same,    353- 
Reality,     divine:    pervading    con- 
sciousness   of,    216,    217. 
Rebekah:      fearless     and      stout- 
hearted,        153;         understood 
something  of  her  high  calling, 
ibid. 
Recitative:    much   in   Old   Testa- 
ment narrative,  32. 
Refrain:       characterizes       ballad 

verse,  76. 
Religion:    chief    interest    of    all 
peoples,   3;   essential   character- 
istic  of   Hebrew    poetry,    67. 
Religions    comparative:    illumines 

Old   Testament,   8,  9. 
Religious    system    of    a    people: 

what  it  is,  5. 
Remnant:    the    hope    of    Israel, 

30S,    306. 
Renounce:    significance   of   word 

in  Job,  277  note. 
Repentance:    hope   in,    207;    for- 
ever    possible    in     relation    to 
God,    210. 
Restitution   in   Torah,   364. 
Retaliation  in  Torah,  365. 
Reverence:    an    essential    of   sci- 
ence and   philosophy,   219. 
Resurrection:    an    illustration    of 

a  higher  truth,   283,   284. 
Rhythm:    distinguishes    prophetic 
poetry,    83;    Hebrew,    natural, 
84. 


Riches:  a  token   of  God's  favor, 

231;  yet  subordinated  to  right 

conduct,  ibid. 
Riddles:    in   Old   Testament,   43; 

in    Proverbs,    227. 
Ruth:   a  pastoral  love-story,    155; 

author's    interest     in     folklore, 

156. 

Sacred:    not    divided   from    secu- 
lar    in     Old     Testament,     67, 
216. 
Samsi-Adad:    succeeds    Shalman- 
eser      II,      134;      never      went 
westward,    135. 
Sanitary  laws,  367. 
Sarcasm:  Jotham's,  45;  father  of 
Gideon's,  ibid.;  Elijah's,  ibtd-; 
characteristic   of   Hebrew    folk- 
lore, 47;  of  book  of  Job,  279. 
Satan:      his     character     in     Job, 
264;     his     function,     265;     his 
doubt  of  Job  a  reflection  upon 
God,   265  note. 
Servant   of    Jehovah:    equivalent 
to  Messiah,   305;   the  remnant, 
306;     suffering    and     perfectly 
obedient    the   ideal,    326. 
Sevens:    scheme    of,    characteris- 
tic     of      Hebrew      modes      of 
thought,    71. 
Sexual      morality:      treated      by 
modern       authors,       209;       by 
prophets  of  Israel,   210. 
Sexual     immorality:     not    preva- 
lent   in    Israel,    234. 
Shalmaneser:     and     Black     Obe- 
lisk,   117;   in   contact   with   He- 
brew history,   ibid.;  inscription 
on     Black     Obelisk,     119;     last 
invasion    of    Syria,    132;    dies, 
134- 
Shelley:    his    biblical    quotations, 

23- 

Shelomith:      her      love-story      a 

drama,    158. 
Slavery:    in    Mosaic    legislation, 

339- 
Social    duty    on    religious    basis, 

230. 
Solomon:    in    Canticles,    166-80; 

personality    assumed  by   writer 

of    Ecclesiastes,    244- 
Song  of  Solomon:  see  Canticles. 
Song   of    Songs:    most   perfectly 


INDEX 


385 


meets    demand     of    heart    for 
self-expression,     147. 
Sonnet:     structure    of     Hebrew, 

222. 

Sonnets:   first  book  of   Proverbs 

a    collection    of,    222;     riddle 

225. 
Strophe   and   antistrophe,   83. 
Sun:    standing   still,    35,    37. 
Sun      myths:       ferry-boat,       541 

dragon,    63. 
Superstition:      in      practices      of 

primitive    peoples,     59;     absent 

in    Old   Testament,    ibid. 
Syrian      kingdom:      founded     on 

ruins   of    Hittite    empire,    118; 

help     of,     invoked     alternately 

by     Israel     and     Judah,     ibid; 

Judah      and      Israel      combine 

against,   ibid. 

Taunt-songs:  classic  expression 
of  Hebrew  sarcasm,  48. 

Theocracy:  in  a  sense  a  correct 
term,    369. 

Tithes:   their   destination,   351. 

Torah:  the  Mosaic  laws,  328, 
329;  its  rigorous  character, 
362;  an  inspired  body  of 
laws,    373. 

Tribe:  the  social  unit  in  Israel, 
212. 

Trilogy:  working  out  spiritual 
problem  of  humanity,  239  and 
note. 

Truth:  and  poetry  not  anti- 
thetic, 13;  and  scientific  state- 
ment   may   be,    14. 

Unfortunate  classes:  humane 
legislation    for,    349. 

Unity:  idea  first  came  _  to  He- 
brews, 101;  taught  in  epic, 
102;    God   its  source,  217, 

Universe,  harmonious:  a  wit- 
ness to  immutable  basis  of 
goodness,    294. 

Unrest,  moral:  characteristic  of 
Hebrew   progress,   303. 

Utilitarianism  of  Proverbs  en- 
nobled   by   reverence,    219. 

Utopia,  Hebrew:  moral  purpose 
of,  303;  equivalent  to  mes- 
sianic   kingdom,     304;    always 


progressive  idea,  ibid.;  hope 
of,  centered  first  in  nation, 
later  in  a  person,  ibid.;  the 
remnant,  305;  divine  enlight- 
enment its  central  fact,  306; 
ideal  of  perfect  state,  307; 
Palestine  its  seat,  ibid.;  a 
blessing  to  the  world,  309;  de- 
velopment of  idea,  Amos, 
3091.;  Hosea,  311;  Isaiah, 
312;  Jeremiah,  313;  Zcpha- 
niah,  319;  lizekiel,  323;  Joel, 
324;  Obadiah,  325;  Psalmists, 
325- 

Vanity:  Koheleth's  view  of  nat- 
ural  law,    242. 

Wars    of   Jehovah,    book   of,    33. 

Widows:    laws    concerning,    349. 

Wisdom:  concerned  with  rela- 
tions of  man  with  man,  217; 
no  room  for  agnosticism,  218; 
its  secret,  219;  daring  and 
sublime  personification,  223; 
wherein  it  is  good,  250;  its  fu- 
tility,   251. 

Wisdom  literature:  a  late  prod- 
uct, 213;  much  of  in  Apocry- 
pha, 213;  canonical  books  of, 
214;  a  link  between  Hebrew 
and  other  literatures,  235; 
the  bridge  between  paganism 
and  Judaism,  236;  unique  in 
conception  of  relation  of 
physical  universe  to  God, 
257. 

Wise,  the:  influential  from 
early  days,  213;  these  not 
writers,  ibid. ;  their  utter- 
ances collected  at  a  late  pe- 
riod,   ibid. 

Woman:  her  high  status  in 
Israel,  232,  233;  religious 
system  did  not  suffer  by  over- 
looking, 234;  advanced  char- 
acter of  Mosaic  legislation 
concerning,  353;  industrially 
and  politically  on  level  with 
man,  354;  reason  for,  ibid.; 
interests  in  sexual  relations 
peculiarly  safeguarded,  355; 
no  sentimentality  in  this,  358; 
Mosaic  code  in  advance  of 
any  present  system,   359. 

Women:  high  rank  in  Israel, 
147;  shown  in  prophetic  in- 
vective,      184;       responsibility 


386 


INDEX 


of,  ibid.;  their  sins  those  of 
freedom,  185;  captives  in 
war,  humane  legislation  for, 
358. 

Zechariah:  pictures  Messiah  as 
man  of  peace,  320;  "».  sheP- 
herd  character,  3^1;  his  Uto- 
pia,  ibid. 

Zephaniah:    feature    of    his    Uto- 


pia the  blotting  out  of  sins, 
319- 
Zophar,  friend  of  Job:  a  pattern 
man,  278;  accuses  Job  of  sin, 
ibid.;  his  counsel  of  expe- 
diency, ibid.;  his  contemptuous 
sarcasm,  284;  contends  that 
only  wicked  are  punished, 
288;  search  for  wisdom  un- 
der analogy  of  mining,   289. 


AA    000  813  051     o 


